Crime & Justice

Alleged Half Moon Bay Killer Once Tried to Suffocate Co-Worker, Docs Say

‘I AM GOING TO KILL YOU’

A second incident, in which Chunli Zhao threatened to split a man’s head open with a knife, followed weeks later.

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San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department

Chunli Zhao, the man charged with fatally shooting seven people in what’s believed to be a fit of workplace rage on Monday, once tried to suffocate a former co-worker in 2013 after telling him, “today I am going to kill you,” according to a restraining order application filed against him, obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. That chilling incident happened in 2013, when Zhao, having just quit his job at a restaurant south of San Francisco, snuck into Jingjiu Wang’s apartment and demanded money for his most-recent work before quitting. When Wang insisted he had no checks for Zhao, he became violent. After telling Wang he was going to kill him, the document says Zhao tried to do just that. “He then took a pillow and started to cover my face and suffocate me,” the restraining order application, penned by Wang, said. “While I couldn’t breathe, I used all my might within the few seconds to push him away with my blanket.” Wang escaped the fight, but wrote that Zhao later threatened to split his head with a knife if he didn’t give him his job back at the restaurant. California authorities are still trying to pin down what motivated Zhao to open fire at a mushroom farm he worked at on Monday in Half Moon Bay, California.

Read it at San Francisco Chronicle