The man accused of fatally gunning down seven people and wounding an eighth in dual workplace massacres across the popular tourist community of Half Moon Bay threatened to suffocate and use a knife to split open the head of a South Bay restaurant co-worker a decade ago, court records obtained Tuesday by the Bay Area News Group show.
Chunli Zhao, the 66-year-old shooting suspect, made those threats in March 2013 after quitting his restaurant job, according to a civil harassment restraining order his former roommate and co-worker filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
In a sworn court declaration, the roommate said Zhao “took a pillow and started to cover my face and suffocate me” after being told he’d have to go to the restaurant to pick up his final paycheck. Zhao, in response, “said to me, today I am going to kill you,” according to the court petition.
Two days later, Zhao asked if he could return to work and said, “if this can’t be done, this would be a bigger problem, which will not be good/pleasant for everyone,” the petition reads. “This seemed to be a threat to me and the restaurant I work at.”
The former roommate — at the time Zhao lived in San Jose — also wrote in the court papers that Zhao warned he would “use a kitchen knife to split my head” if he could not return to the job.
The restraining order declaration is among some of the details that began to paint a picture of Zhao, who authorities said worked at Mountain Mushroom Farm, the location of the first shooting Monday afternoon.
“All of the evidence we have points to this being an instance of workplace violence,” San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said at a press conference.
Of the eight victims, seven were men and one a woman, the sheriff’s office said. It is not yet clear if the people shot were his intended victims, officials said, or if Zhao said anything to them during the attack.
Zhao was arrested in a sheriff’s substation parking lot at about 4:40 p.m. Monday when a deputy noticed him sitting inside his car and ordered him out of the vehicle. He emerged with his hands in the air, prompting deputies to take him to the ground before handcuffing him and leading him into the substation.
On dramatic video captured at the substation, Zhao could be seen being walked inside the building, wearing a red long-sleeved shirt, a grey vest, blue jeans and a white ball cap.
Zhao appeared to be acting alone in the shootings, the sheriff’s office said, although further details about a possible motivation for the bloodshed remained scant Tuesday morning as investigators continued to piece together evidence in the case.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said he expected Zhao to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
The anticipated charges against Zhao, which are expected to be filed formally Wednesday morning, include seven counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, multiple counts of special circumstances and gun charges, Wagstaffe said.
His connection to Concord Farms, where the second shooting spree happened, remains unclear. The owner of Concord Farms told the Bay Area News Group late Monday evening she did not recognize the name of the alleged gunman. Three employees of the decades-old mushroom farm died in the shooting spree, including a manager who had spent 27 years at the business, said the owner, who asked not to be named.
“This kind of thing should never happen, no matter where,” she said. “They are innocent. Nobody knows why this happened — why this guy came to our farm.”
The owners of Mountain Mushroom farm, where the violence began at about 2:20 p.m. Monday afternoon, could not immediately be reached for comment. Four people died there, and another person was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Kati McHugh, who described herself as a member of the local agricultural community, was at the sheriff’s substation awaiting a news conference when Zhao was taken into custody. His arrival caught her by surprise.
“He was quiet,” said McHugh, adding that she hoped Zhao came to turn himself in. “He didn’t react much when he was taken down and it all happened pretty calmly.”
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(Mercury News staff reporters Aldo Toledo, Austin Turner, Elissa Miolene and Jason Green contributed to this report.)
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