Victims of mass shooting at California's Half Moon Bay identified

Los Angeles, Jan 26

The seven farmworkers killed in mass shootings in Half Moon Bay, Northern California, have been identified, authorities said.

They are Jose Perez; Martinez Jimenez, 50; Qizhong Cheng, 66; Jingzhi Lu, 64; Zhishen Liu, 73; Aixiang Zhang, 74; and Yetao Bing, 43, reports Xinhua news agency.

Perez's age was not yet known.

An eighth person injured was Pedro Romero Perez, the brother of Jose Perez. Both are Mexican nationals.

The victims are primarily Mexican and Chinese immigrants, some of whom had worked at a local mushroom farms for years.

Authorities previously said all of them had worked at one of the two mushroom farms where the shootings took place on Monday.

The suspect, Zhao Chunli, a 67-year-old local resident who surrendered to police shortly after the shootings, appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday at the Hall of Justice in Redwood City.

His arraignment hearing has been pushed to February 16.

He will remain in jail without bail.

Residents of Half Moon Bay have set up memorials to the victims around town, lighting candles and leaving flowers and notes at the two locations where they were killed.

This attack came as the state was still mourning the deaths in majority-Asian Monterey Park during celebrations for the Lunar New Year on January 21.

The 72-year-old gunman of the mass shooting in Monterey Park was found dead the next day from a self-inflicted gunshot injury after a standoff with police officers.

Five women and five men were killed, while another 10 people suffered injuries in the tragic incident that occurred at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a popular ballroom dance facility operated for about 30 years, when it was hosting an event to celebrate the countdown to the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The shooter was identified as Huu Can Tran, an Asian likely of Vietnamese descent.

According to the non-profit group that runs the Gun Violence Archive collating weapon incidents, there have already been 36 mass shootings this year in the US while there were 647 last year.