About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2023)
LOCA^NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, January 26, 2023 3A CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ I Associated Press Merced Martinez places a candle at a memorial for victims of the mass shooting the day before in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 24. Suspect in Half Moon Bay farm killings faces 7 murder counts BY OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ AND JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — A farmworker accused of killing seven people in back- to-back shootings at two Northern California mush room farms was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder. Chunli Zhao, 66, was scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednes day. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Meanwhile, the San Mateo County coroner’s office identified six of those who died in shootings the sheriffs office has called “workplace violence” without further detailing a motive. It was California’s third mass shooting in eight days, including the killing of 11 in the Los Angeles area amid Lunar New Year cel ebrations Saturday. Authorities believe Zhao acted alone Monday when he entered a mushroom farm where he worked in Half Moon Bay, shot and killed four people and seri ously wounded a fifth. He then drove to a nearby farm where he worked previ ously and killed three more people, said Eamonn Allen, a sheriff’s spokesperson. The charges include addi tional allegations that could result in the death penalty or life in prison without parole, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a moratorium on executions. Among those allegations are that Zhao used a gun, caused great bodily injury, killed mul tiple people, and had a prior felony conviction. No addi tional details were provided on the prior felony. The coroner’s office named six of the victims: Zhishen Liu, 73, of San Francisco; Marciano Mar tinez Jimenez, 50, of Moss Beach, California; Aixiang Zhang, 74, of San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66, of Half Moon Bay; Jingzhi Lu, 64, of Half Moon Bay; and Yetao Bing, 43, whose hometown was unknown. The name of the seventh victim has not been released publicly as officials work to notify rela tives, the coroner’s office said. Officials have said some of the people killed were migrant workers. Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother Marciano Martinez Jimenez was a delivery person and manager at one of the farms. He never mentioned Zhao or said anything about prob lems with other workers. “He was a good person. He was polite and friendly with everyone. He never had any problems with any one. I don’t understand why all this happened,” Martinez Jimenez said in Spanish. Marciano Martinez Jimenez had lived in the United States for 28 years after arriving from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Servando Martinez Jimenez said he is working with the Mexican consulate to get his brother’s body home. It would not have been Zhao’s first fit of workplace rage, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In 2013 Zhao was accused of threat ening to split a coworker’s head open with a knife and separately tried to suffocate the man with a pillow, the Chronicle reported, based on court documents. The two were roommates and worked at a restau rant, and the man, identi fied as Jingjiu Wang, filed a temporary restraining order against Zhao that was granted but is no longer in effect. Wang could not be immediately reached, the Chronicle reported. The shootings occurred at California Terra Garden, previously known as Moun tain Mushroom Farm, and nearby Concord Farms. David Oates, a California Terra Garden spokesperson, said that he did not know how long Zhao worked there and that he was one of 35 employees who had stayed when ownership changed. Oates declined to provide details of the four slain workers. Concord Farms owner Aaron Tung said in a state ment that the farm was wait ing for more information before it could comment. Half Moon Bay is a small, laid-back, coastal and agri cultural city about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean make it a popular spot for hikers and tourists, who flock there to surf and for an annual giant pumpkin festival. The new year has brought six mass killings in the U.S. in fewer than three weeks, accounting for 39 deaths. Three have occurred in California since Jan. 16, according to a database compiled by The Associ ated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The database tracks every mass killing — defined as four dead, not including the offender — in the U.S. since 2006. The shootings in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park followed the killing of a teenage mother, her baby and six others at a home in California’s Central Valley on Jan. 16. Officials discuss ing the investigation men tioned a possible gang link to the killings. >3 s ■n SCOn ROGERS I The Times A crowd gathers Wednesday, Jan. 25, on the lawn of the Walters House at Brenau University during an unveiling ceremony for a statue of James A. “Jim” Walters. STATUE ■ Continued from 1A Places, the 1903 house was renamed in 2005 to honor Walters’ gift for capital improvements across the university. It’s only one of many spaces at Brenau and across Hall County bearing the Wal ters name in recognition of his philanthropy and com munity service. Walters also was instru mental in Brenau acquiring the Downtown Center, for merly known as the Georgia Mountain Center, from the city of Gainesville. Today, the facility houses many of Brenau’s health care pro grams and serves as the cornerstone of the recently established Downtown Campus. He was one of Brenau’s leading benefactors, and was recognized by the university during his lifetime with an honorary doctorate and a Distinguished Service to Bre nau award. A native of North Carolina, Walters moved to Gainesville in 1970 and was president and owner of James A. Wal ters Management Co. Walters supported the community for decades through service to numer ous boards and organiza tions including the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, Lakeview Academy Board of Directors, Northeast Geor gia Medical Center Founda tion Board and United Way of Hall County, to name just a few. Walters and his wife Peggy, who died in 2022, were married for 60 years and had two daughters and multiple grandchildren. GREG ALLEN I Associated Press 'Honoree Lloyd Morrisett appears with muppet characters at the 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors at The Kennedy Center, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, in Washington. Lloyd Morrisett of ‘Sesame Street’ dies BY MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK — Lloyd Morrisett, the co-creator of the beloved children’s education TV series “Sesame Street,” which uses empathy and fuzzy monsters like Abby Cad- abby, Elmo and Cookie Monster to charm and teach generations around the world, has died. He was 93. Morrisett’s death was announced Mon day by Sesame Work shop, the nonprofit he helped establish under the name the Children’s Television Workshop. No cause of death was given. In a statement, Ses ame Workshop hailed Morrisett as a “wise, thoughtful, and above all kind leader” who was “constantly think ing about new ways” to educate. Morrisett and Joan Ganz Cooney worked with Harvard University developmental psychol ogist Gerald Lesser to build the show’s unique approach to teaching that now reaches 120 million children. Leg endary puppeteer Jim Henson supplied the critters. “Without Lloyd Mor risett, there would be no ‘Sesame Street.’It was he who first came up with the notion of using televi sion to teach preschool ers basic skills, such as letters and numbers,” Cooney said in a state ment. “He was a trusted partner and loyal friend to me for over 50 years, and he will be sorely missed.” “Sesame Street” is shown in more than 150 countries, has won 216 Emmys, 11 Grammys and in 2019 received the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement, the first time a television pro gram got the award (Big Bird strolled down the aisle and basically sat in Tom Hanks’ lap). Bieber sells rights to catalog NEW YORK — Justin Bieber’s record-breaking pop hits from “Baby” to “Sorry” are no longer his after the superstar sold the rights to all his early career music. The Canadian-Ameri- can pop star’s six albums, including his most recent album “Justice,” are part of the massive catalog sale deal with Hipgnosis, a U.K-based music invest ment company. Top artists like Sting, Bob Dylan and Shakira have in recent years sold rights to their catalogs for massive sums, but at 28 Bieber is the youngest superstar singer to do so. Hipgnosis acquired Sha- kira’s catalog in 2018. Bieber’s publishing copyrights, songwrit er’s ownership, master recordings and all rights of his entire catalog of recordings made through 2021 are now owned by Hipgnosis. That covers 290 titles, including hits like “Peaches” “Beauty and the Beat” music that Bieber has been releasing since he was 13. The deal’s financial details have not been dis closed, but Billboard Mag azine reports that the sale was worth an estimated $200 million. “Justin is truly a once in a generation artist and that is reflected and acknowledged by the magnitude of this deal.” Scooter Braun, Bieber’s longtime manager, said in a statement Tuesday. All of Bieber’s six offi cial studio albums have been certified platinum or multiplatinum by the Recording Industry Asso ciation of America, and he’s recorded 33 singles that have been desig nated platinum or multi platinum globally. A song or album that sells more than a million copies receives platinum certi fication, while works that surpass two million sales become multiplatinum. Bieber is the eighth most listened to artist in the world on Spotify, with 69 million monthly listeners and over 30 bil lion streams. His video for “Baby” has been streamed more than 2.9 billion times on YouTube. Two displaced after Gainesville home fire BY NICK WATSON nwatson@ gainesvilletimes.com Firefighters were still putting out hotspots Wednesday afternoon in the attic of a Gaines ville home, according to authorities. Hall County firefight ers responded around 1:15 p.m. to the 3700 block of Harmony Church Road in Gainesville, where they found smoke and flames coming from the home. After an external attack, firefighters moved inside to extinguish the bulk of the fire. No people were found during their search, and no injuries were reported. Two people were dis placed from the home, and the American Red Cross was contacted to assist them. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office. CLERK ■ Continued from 1A room for two days.”” “He told me, ‘I can’t sleep in my truck again,”’ she said. “And I went to start telling him about the shelters, and that’s when he told me, ‘I’m just going to get me a room for two days.’ He said, ‘That way I know for the next two days I get some more sleep.”” She said he seemed stressed and asked him if he was OK. “‘Life just gets hard, you know?”’ she said he told her. “And I started talking to him about things that go on in life, and he said something about, he said, ‘Yeah, you got to be good or you go to hell,’ and I said, ‘Well, I don’t think it works that way.’ But we got into a conversation about the lord, and his eyes watered up. He said, ‘I got to go to my room. This is getting too deep.’” Perez said she checked the man into room 122 under the name David Brian Ross at exactly 3:47 p.m. Tuesday, adding that he had two little dogs. She said the man had been staying there on and off since Saturday. She said authorities came in around 11:15 p.m. Tues day, showed her a picture of the man and asked if she had seen him. “I said, ‘Yeah, I talked to him a couple times,”’ she said. “He was just walking around like nothing had ever happened. And they said, ‘OK,’ they asked me what room was he in, and I told them.” Perez said authorities were staked out all night. “They didn’t want to have no big issues or put no one in danger, so they just waited it out for him to walk out of the room,” she said. He surren dered peacefully.” She said he was arrested at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday after coming out of his room to let his dogs use the bathroom. “He just looked down the hall and seen them and put his hands up,” she said. “He didn’t give them no fight or nothing.”
