(Los Angeles) The man suspected of having killed seven of his fellow agricultural workers and injured another in mid-January in California pleaded not guilty on Thursday, according to several American media.
Zhao Chunli is accused of carrying out two attacks on mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco.
This 66-year-old Chinese, who has lived in the United States for more than ten years, appeared in court in Redwood City, northern California. Prosecuted for murder and attempted murder, he rejected through his interpreter all the charges brought against him, according to the newspaper San Francisco Chronicle.
While most of the victims were also Chinese, two were Mexican.
The suspect lived with his wife on the farm where the first attack took place. The first elements of the investigation show that the shooting could have been motivated by a dispute in the context of work, according to the prosecution.
A few days after his arrest, Mr. Zhao admitted his guilt to an NBC reporter during a prison visit.
To explain his gesture, he had then declared to suffer from mental disorders and put forward the overwork endured for years within the farm.
The killing perpetrated by Zhao Chunli came less than 48 hours after another massacre in California, led by a septuagenarian of Asian origin who left eleven dead in a dance hall near Los Angeles.
These two carnages, carried out using semi-automatic weapons, deeply shocked the Asian community in the United States.
The judge ordered Mr. Zhao’s reappearance on May 3, according to the San Jose Mercury News.