Still in force in California, the death penalty has not been applied since 2006. But the date could change during the trial of Chunli Zhao, 66, a suspect in a shooting, said a prosecutor Wednesday, during of his first court appearance.
The man was arrested Monday outside the Half Moon Bay police station, shortly after the two attacks on farms in this city near San Francisco.
He is expected to face seven counts of homicide and one of attempted homicide, and what prosecutors call a special circumstance for multiple murders.
His attorney requested that his formal indictment be dismissed.
Judge Susan Jakubowski ordered Chunli Zhao to remain in custody, and to appear again on February 16.
The special circumstance could earn him "life in prison or the death penalty," San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
This decision will be made "once the investigation is complete, when we have learned everything we can" about the suspect, added the prosecutor.
“Today I will kill you”
Sheriff Christina Corpus said Tuesday that the suspect appeared to know his victims, five men and two women, who were of Asian or Hispanic origin.
“All the evidence we have suggests this is a case of workplace violence,” she said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the suspect purchased the murder weapon Feb. 9 in Monterey Park.
According to him, it is a Cobray CM11-9 semi-automatic pistol, an illegal weapon in California.
Chunli Zhao and his wife lived, along with other employees, at the Mountain Mushroom Farms site where the first attack took place.
According to court documents, five of his victims have Chinese names, and two were in their 70s.
The Mexican consulate in San Francisco has confirmed that two Mexican men died in the double shooting, and that another was hospitalized.
A former colleague of the suspect, with whom he would have worked in a restaurant, had obtained a removal order against him for violence, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"Today I'm going to kill you," Chunli Zhao allegedly told her before trying to smother her with a pillow.
The shooting, less than 48 hours after the murder of 11 people in a popular Asian ballroom near Los Angeles, shocked the large community of Asian Americans in California.
World
California: A double shooting leaves seven dead, a 60-year-old arrested
World
Shooting in California: Murdered by one of its own, the Asian community of Los Angeles seeks answers
World
UNITED STATES
California
san francisco
prosecutor
Shooting