A Half Moon Bay mushroom farm failed to guard the employees dwelling there from a gunman who focused them in 2023, leading to a lethal mass taking pictures, in line with a pair of lawsuits filed towards the employer.
Prosecutors have charged Chunli Zhao, 67, within the deaths of seven individuals who have been fatally shot at California Terra Backyard and Harmony Farm, two locations the place Zhao had labored. Prosecutors allege the lethal rampage was sparked after Zhao was advised by a supervisor that he’d need to foot the $100 invoice to repair a broken forklift.
Zhao, who’s awaiting trial, is anticipated to seem in courtroom this month. However a pair of lawsuits filed Wednesday allege that Xianmin Guan, one of many homeowners of California Terra Backyard, failed not simply to offer first rate housing to its employees but in addition to guard them from a co-worker who had a violent previous.
“There have been crimson flags that confirmed the shooter had a violent historical past, together with from folks he lived with,” mentioned Duffy Magilligan, an legal professional representing Pedro Felix Romero Perez, who survived the rampage regardless of being shot 5 instances. “There was additionally a historical past of violent exercise on the farm.”
Magilligan and his regulation agency additionally filed a second lawsuit on behalf of the household of Perez’s brother, Jose Romero Perez, who was killed within the taking pictures.
Guan and representatives of California Terra Backyard didn’t instantly reply to messages requesting remark concerning the lawsuits.
Pedro Felix Romero Perez had been dwelling and dealing at California Terra Gaden since 2021, Magilligan mentioned. His older brother, Jose Romero Perez, later migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, to Half Moon Bay and joined his brother on the farm. The elder Perez left behind his spouse and 4 youngsters in Oaxaca, Magilligan mentioned, for whom he was the first technique of help.
The 2 brothers selected to stay on the farm, paying lease to its homeowners, as a result of they didn’t personal a automotive.
The lawsuits reiterate a number of the claims that have been made after the Jan. 23, 2023, taking pictures left seven farmworkers useless — that farmworkers have been dwelling in deplorable, makeshift properties at one of many farms the place they have been focused by a gunman.
“The brothers and different farmworkers’ properties had flooring made from plywood, partitions lined in plastic, and makeshift wood-burning stoves for heating meals,” one of many fits alleges.
Past offering insufficient housing, the lawsuit alleges, the homeowners of California Terra Backyard, Inc., specifically CTG and Guan, “didn’t adequately safe their premises towards moderately foreseeable felony acts.”
The lawsuit factors to a different taking pictures that occurred on the farm seven months earlier than the mass taking pictures. Through the July 1, 2022, incident, a person tried to interrupt into one of many trailers and threatened to kill the farmworker dwelling there and his household, firing one shot into the trailer, the lawsuit says.
The swimsuit additionally claims that the homeowners of the farm have been conscious of Chunli Zhao’s violent historical past, together with a 2013 restraining order filed towards him by his roommate. The roommate claimed Zhao tried to suffocate him with a pillow throughout one assault, and days later threatened to make use of a knife to chop the roommate’s head if Zhao couldn’t come again to work.
Regardless of being conscious of the incidents, Magilligan mentioned, the farm took no steps to guard employees, resulting in the mass taking pictures.
In response to the fits, Zhao first shot a farmworker at California Terra Backyard, then shot and killed a supervisor there.
The 67-year-old then began to make his technique to the farm encampment, the place a number of of the employees lived.
“Zhao confronted no obstacles or deterrents on path to the encampment,” the lawsuit states.
Zhao went contained in the trailer the Perez brothers shared and shot each of them, the lawsuit alleges. Magilligan mentioned Pedro remains to be recovering from his wounds and has been unable to return to work.
Prosecutors allege that Zhao continued on his taking pictures rampage, driving two miles to Harmony Farms and focusing on extra folks whom he allegedly held long-running grudges towards.
After the taking pictures, the farm was cited by Cal/OSHA for 22 violations, together with failing to ascertain procedures to establish hazards posed by an lively shooter and consider risks posed by employees threatening bodily violence.
“Each landowner has an obligation to offer safety to the people who find themselves on their property, and that applies to landlords like this mushroom farm,” Magilligan mentioned. “The proof of the Cal OSHA investigation simply goes to indicate the extent to which the farm wasn’t doing something to guard their employees.”
