BY STEFANIE DAZIO | Associated Press
California has cited two Northern California mushroom farms for health and safety violations and proposed more than $165,000 in potential fines five months after a farmworker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings on the farms in Half Moon Bay.
Chunli Zhao, who had worked at the farms, is charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the Jan. 23 shootings that stunned the small coastal community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of San Francisco. He has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities say Zhao opened fire at California Terra Garden, where he previously worked, killing four co-workers and wounding another one. They said he then drove about 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) to Concord Farms, a mushroom farm he was fired from in 2015, and shot to death three workers.
The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as CAL/OSHA, filed 22 violations against California Terra Garden, Inc. and proposes $113,800 in fines, according to a Monday news release. Concord Farms faces 19 violations and $51,770 in fines.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office previously said some of the farmworkers told him they made $9 an hour and lived in shipping containers. The state minimum wage is $15.50.
“The conditions farmworkers shared with the Governor … are simply deplorable. Many workers have no choice but to tolerate the conditions provided to them by their employers,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said in a statement at the time.
The violations at California Terra Garden include an alleged failure to have a plan in place to notify employees of the Jan. 23 active shooter threat and to tell them to take shelter.
The shooting at California Terra Garden was at least the second time an employee tried to kill a coworker on the property, records show.
A manager there was charged with attempted murder after he threatened to kill another manager in July and then fired a shot…
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