Defendant in Half Moon Bay shooting carried out massacre after being forced to pay $100 for damaging a wheelbarrow

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The man accused of killing seven people at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay, Northern California, confessed to the shootings after his supervisor demanded he pay $100 to repair a forklift that broke down during a work shift. , according to the Prosecutor's Office.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed to the Bay Area News Group on Friday that Chunli Zhao bristled at being urged to pick up the bill and blamed a coworker for crashing his bulldozer into his wheelbarrow.

Zhao, 66, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Authorities charge Chunli Zhao with killing seven people in two shootings in Half Moon Bay, California.Shae Hammond/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Authorities allege he killed four workers and injured a fifth employee Monday at the California Terra Garden.

He then went to nearby Concord Farms, where he had previously worked, and killed three former co-workers.

Among the fatalities there are three Mexicans, two of them brothers.

Zhao acknowledged in an interview Thursday with San Francisco's local NBC News station, KNTV-TV, that he fired the shots.

He also claimed that he was bullied, worked long hours on farms and his complaints were ignored.

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The man complained to his supervisor on Monday about paying the bill, but he insisted that he had to pay it.

The man then fired at him and the colleague involved in the work accident, according to the media.

The defendant told in Mandarin from the Redwood City County Jail that he has lived in the United States for 11 years and that he is a legal resident, lives with his wife in Half Moon Bay and has a 40-year-old daughter.

"We don't deserve to die like this": a witness to the Half Moon Bay shooting saw his companions killed

Jan 25, 202301:57

The victims were identified as Zhishen Liu, 73;

Marciano Martínez Jiménez, 50 years old;

Aixiang Zhang, 74;

Qizhong Cheng, 66;

Jingzhi Lu, 64;

and Yetao Bing, 43.

The charging documents identified José Romero Pérez as the other person killed and Pedro Romero Pérez as the eighth victim, who survived.