On January 23, 2023, a mass shooting at two Half Moon Bay agricultural sites, California Terra Garden and Concord Farms, left seven people dead, including 66-year-old Half Moon Bay resident Qizhong Cheng. The victims were coworkers, many of them immigrant farmworkers, and the shootings reverberated through the local agricultural community.

Authorities arrested 66-year-old Chunli Zhao shortly after the attack and charged him with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Investigators said Zhao acted alone and used a legally purchased semi-automatic handgun. In the months after the killings the case exposed broader problems for local farmworkers: in May 2024 the farms agreed to pay over $450,000 to 62 workers for illegal payroll deductions and were accused of housing employees in cramped, moldy, insect-infested rooms.

What can anyone who knew Qizhong Cheng or who worked at those farms add about his life or the conditions faced by workers there?