MONTEREY PARK, Calif., Jan 24 – Just two days after a gunman killed 11 people at a Los Angeles-area dance studio, seven more were shot dead in an agricultural area near San Francisco as California suffered one of its own. the bloodiest spate of mass gun violence in decades.
Authorities said they had not determined a motive for any of the rampages, which seemed especially puzzling in part because the suspects in each were men of retirement age, much older than is typical for the perpetrators of the deadly mass shootings that have become a numbing routine in the United States. of states.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was visiting injured survivors of Saturday night’s massacre in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park when he was informed of Monday’s killings in Northern California.
“Tragedy after tragedy,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.
Otherwise, the back-to-back shootings seemed to have little in common.
The latest spasm of gunfire hit the coastal town of Half Moon Bay, about 50 miles south of San Francisco, where a gunman opened fire on groups of farm workers at two locations about a mile apart, leaving a total of seven dead and one injured. wounded, then fled.
The accused shooter, identified as Chunli Zhao, 67, was taken into custody shortly after he was found sitting in his vehicle parked outside the sheriff’s station where authorities believe he had come to turn himself in.
A semi-automatic handgun was found in his car, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said at an evening news conference.