Andrew Zatko, an 80-year-old Morro Bay resident and noted deep-sea diver, was shot and killed at his home on November 7, 1992. The killing occurred shortly before 6 p.m. when Lynwood Drake arrived at Zatko’s residence and shot him in the throat at close range with a revolver. Zatko’s live-in companion, Gladys Walton, witnessed the attack.

Drake’s attack on Zatko was part of a broader, premeditated shooting spree across three central California coastal towns after Drake had been evicted from Zatko’s rental earlier that year. Drake went on to kill other former tenants and multiple people at a card-playing club in Paso Robles, wounded one person there, and was found dead by suicide the following morning; a suicide note in which he used the name Jesse Cole Younger was recovered on his person. Reports note Drake had prior arrests and documented mental health concerns, and that his eviction in May 1992 followed non-payment of rent.