A farmworker accused of killing seven people in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms will be charged with seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The charges will be filed before Chunli Zhao, 66, makes his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon, said Steve Wagstaffe, the district attorney for San Mateo County.

It was not immediately clear whether Zhao had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Authorities believe Zhao acted alone Monday when he entered a mushroom farm where he worked in Half Moon Bay and opened fire, killing four people and seriously wounding a fifth, San Mateo County sheriff’s officials said. He then drove to another nearby farm where he had previously worked and killed an additional three people, said Eamonn Allen, a sheriff’s spokesperson.

The sheriff's office said it believes the shootings were “workplace violence" but has not further detailed a motive. It was California's third mass shooting in eight days, including the killing of 11 in Monterey Park in the Los Angeles area amid Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday.

Zhao also faces a special circumstance allegation of multiple murder, as well as sentencing enhancements on each count for the use of a firearm, Wagstaffe said.

If convicted of the special circumstance, Zhao could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on executions in 2019.

Officials have not yet released the names of the five men and two women who died, nor the one man who was injured. Some were Asian and others were Hispanic, and some were migrant workers.

Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother Marciano Martinez Jimenez, who was a delivery person and manager at one of the farms, was among those killed. Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother never mentioned Zhao or said anything about problems with other workers.

“He was a good person. He was polite and friendly with everyone. He never had any problems with anyone. I don’t understand why all this happened,” Martinez Jimenez said in Spanish.

Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, 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.

Allen declined to answer questions about whether Zhao had any previous criminal history, saying, “there were no specific indicators that would have led us to believe he was capable of something like this.”

But it would not have been Zhao’s first fit of workplace rage, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In 2013 Zhao was accused of threatening 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 restaurant, and the man, identified 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.

Video below: California Gov. Newsom speaks out against gun violence after Half Moon Bay, Monterey Park shootings

The shootings occurred at California Terra Garden, previously known as Mountain 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 statement that the farm was waiting for more information before it could comment.

Half Moon Bay is a small, laid-back, coastal and agricultural 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 Associated 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 discussing the investigation mentioned a possible gang link to the killings.

EAST LANSING, Mich. —

Video above: Michigan State University officials, police provide update early Tuesday morning on shootings

A gunman opened fire Monday night at Michigan State University, killing three people and wounding five more, before fatally shooting himself off campus amid an hourslong manhunt during which frightened students hid in the dark.

Police reported the man's death early Tuesday, four hours after shootings broke out, first at Berkey Hall, an academic building, and then nearby at the MSU Union, a popular hub to eat or study.

"This truly has been a nightmare we're living tonight," said Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of the campus police department.

Hundreds of officers had scoured the East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, for the suspect.

The suspect, who police said was a 43-year-old man who had no affiliation with Michigan State University, was found dead off campus from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound."

His name was not released.

Rozman said it was too early to know a motive and whether the man had some type of affiliation with the university.

Video below: Heavy police presence on MSU campus

"There's a lot that we don't know at this point," Rozman said.

Two people were killed at Berkey and another was killed at the MSU Union, he said.

Police said in an early Tuesday morning news briefing that the five victims who were taken to Sparrow Hospital all remain in critical condition.

By 10:15 p.m., police said Berkey, as well as nearby residence halls, were secured.

Before the gunman was found dead, WDIV-TV meteorologist Kim Adams, whose daughter attends Michigan State, told viewers that students were worn down by the hourslong saga.

Video below: Police provide initial update on Michigan State University shootings

"They've been hiding, all the lights off in a dark room," Adams said. "Their cellphones are starting to lose battery charge. They don't all have chargers with them and losing contact with the outside world is terrifying on a normal day for college kids, let alone when there's someone out there that they haven't caught yet."

Aedan Kelley, a junior who lives a half-mile east of campus, said he locked his doors and covered his windows "just in case." Sirens were constant, he said, and a helicopter hovered overhead.

"It's all very frightening," Kelley said. "And then I have all these people texting me wondering if I'm OK, which is overwhelming."

Michigan State has about 50,000 students. All campus activities were canceled for 48 hours, including athletics and classes.

The shooting at Michigan State is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S. Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023, most notably in California where 11 people were killed as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans.

In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

___

Kusmer reported from Indianapolis.

Video above: Michigan State students gather in wake of shooting

Public access to most buildings at Michigan State University will be restricted at night, the school announced Wednesday, one in a series of security steps in response to the February shootings that killed three students and wounded five more.

Students, faculty and staff will need to use their campus ID cards to gain electronic access to buildings between 6 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. on weekdays, starting March 13, officials said. There will be exceptions for events typically open to the general public.

Michigan State plans to make it possible to lock 1,300 classrooms from the inside by the fall semester. Students, faculty and staff will also be required to complete "active violence intruder training" next fall.

"The actions we are outlining today position us on a path to reclaim our sense of safety that was so violently taken away from our community," President Teresa Woodruff said. "These steps will provide more robust security on campus while better preparing our community to respond in these unfortunate situations."

A gunman shot eight students after 8 p.m. Feb. 13. Two students were killed at an academic building, Berkey Hall, while another was slain at the MSU Union, a gathering place for students and the public. Both remain closed.

The shooter, Anthony McRae, 43, later killed himself away from campus, police said.

Michigan State has 50,000 students and hundreds of buildings in East Lansing, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Ryan Dodge, a 19-year-old student, said mandatory training to deal with armed intruders, unfortunately, is a sign of the times.

"Fire drills, tornado drills — those are natural occurrences," he said. "There's nothing natural about a shooter coming on campus, but it's just as dangerous now."

The university said it will expand its current network of 2,000 campus cameras. It also will hire an outside party to analyze the immediate response to the shootings and make the report public.

Video below: Rally held at MSU as students return to campus

"It's reasonable in that it could be much more onerous," Michigan State journalism professor Eric Freedman said of the new building policy. "Does it make it safer? I'm not sure. Will people feel safer? Maybe."

No change to building access during daytime hours was announced. Michigan State already restricts access to the living areas in residence halls, though dining areas on the ground floor typically are open to the public.

Jason Russell, president of Secure Education Consultants, which assesses security at K-12 schools, said Michigan State so far is taking a "measured reaction" to security in the wake of the shootings.

"The things they're adding are appropriate," said Russell, a former Secret Service agent whose daughter is a Michigan State student. "College campuses are inherently difficult to secure, unlike a K-12 school where kids are in the same building. MSU is huge."

The Michigan State shootings were the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S. Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023. In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Jennifer Seeley was glued to her phone, safe at home but terrified nonetheless.

There was an active shooter at the Texas mall where she works as an assistant store manager. And she was searching desperately for information, praying. Was the gunman dead? Were her coworkers dead? What was happening?

So with law enforcement in the Dallas area town of Allen releasing information slowly on that horrible May 6 afternoon, she turned to social media for answers, stumbling across videos showing the bodies of some of the eight who were slain. Desperately she texted her coworkers.

“That’s where all of my information came from was what I saw on Twitter. And, you know, nobody was really releasing any information on what actually happened,” she says now, nearly two weeks later.

The shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets this month has law enforcement public information officers from around the country talking. Social media, they say, has accelerated everything. Now everyone can post images from their phone. That means if police don’t talk, reporters and the public will simply go online, as happened in Allen.

And that presents a major problem, says Katie Nelson, social media and public relations coordinator for the Mountain View Police Department in northern California. Nelson teaches about crisis management and social media best practices. And these days, she says, when it comes to responding, “The luxury of time does not exist."

POLICE APPROACHES HAVE EVOLVED

Police began to harness social media a decade ago, most famously after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. The four-day manhunt ended with police tweeting: “CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.”

It was groundbreaking at the time, says Yael Bar Tur, a police communication consultant and former director of social media for the New York City police department. Now, she says, that it is the basic level expected of law enforcement.

“It’s not enough just to be on social media, you have to be good at it,” she says. “At the end of the day, you know, we have to use this tool because if you don’t, it is going to be used against you.”

In Allen, the mall shooting happened around 3:30 p.m. Allen police sent their first tweet around 4:20 p.m., announcing simply that police were at the mall and that an active investigation was underway. Seeley continued to fear that her coworkers at the Crocs store were hiding and the gunman was still on the loose.

At nearly 7 p.m., police in Allen said an officer had “neutralized the threat.” That meant he was dead. But the often-used term can be confusing to the public, says Julie Parker, a former broadcast journalist and law enforcement public information officer who now advises government agencies on how to respond to critical incidents.

“Normal people who don’t work in law enforcement don’t know what the word neutralized means,” Parker says.

Adding to the situation, the initial news conferences were brief and infrequent. One lasted less than two minutes, and police took no questions.

Eventually she learned that her coworkers had survived, but a security guard she knew was among the dead. Twenty-year-old Christian LaCour had helped jump start a customer’s car just a few days earlier.

“Very anxiety-inducing,” Seeley said of the whole experience.

MAKING THE BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

How to harness social media in the best ways — and quickly — was on everyone’s mind last week as public information officers gathered at a midyear conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“You had a little more time to get information out five or six years ago. The expectation wasn’t there that it would be immediate, and I think it is now,” says Sarah Boyd, who is on the executive board of the association’s group on public communication.

She says her colleagues often text each other to discuss how communications are handled after tragedies. The responsibility weighs on her; she is well aware that the messages police tweet in the midst of a mass shooting might be read by someone hiding from the shooter.

“All they’ve got is their phone, and that tweet is their lifeline," says Boyd, a former newspaper reporter. She is now the public relations manager at the Clay County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office in the Kansas City area.

This newest crop of public information officers, who like Boyd are much more likely to be former reporters themselves than in the past, also are demanding to have a seat at the table when officers are planning how to respond to mass casualty events and police shootings.

They note that the flow of information can go both ways, generating tips from the public, who might have cell phone or Ring doorbell video that could help investigators.

It can be challenging, though, with police nationally struggling to regain the public's trust in the wake of George Floyd's killing in 2020 and the protests that followed. Many factors — for example is the suspect still on the loose? — play a role in what can be released. And even if the suspect is killed, the investigation isn’t over; law enforcement still must determine whether the shooter acted alone, says Alex del Carmen, an associate dean of the school of criminology at Tarleton State University in Texas.

Missteps after the mass shooting at Uvalde, when law enforcement released shifting and at times contradictory information, show the importance of getting details right.

“People were just scratching their heads on the second or third day,” del Carmen says. He has sympathy, though, for the officers faced with communicating the unimaginable; entire careers can be defined by moments like these.

A MODEL FOR QUICKER INFORMATION

The bulk of the nation’s police forces are small, and there are vast differences in what each state allows them to release. In Missouri, for instance, 911 recordings are inaccessible to the public.

The public itself has no such restrictions, though.

After a man killed 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2021, an independent, part-time journalist began livestreaming on his YouTube channel before officers even arrived. The effect can be instantaneous — and, for authorities, quite dizzying.

“We’re putting out information quicker than I’ve ever seen before,” says Boulder police public information officer Dionne Waugh. Given the speed of social media, she says, there's simply no choice.

Amid a crush of media, each victim's family was assigned its own public information officer. All the while, what had happened was hitting Waugh personally; the victims included police Officer Eric Talley, a friend who died rushing into the store.

Though she described the experience as “life-changing” and “horrible,” she has led trainings in the years that have followed. She hopes that reliving it will help others.

Sadly, it wasn't long after Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron asked her to speak that he faced his own mass shooting. In March, a shooter killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in his city before being gunned down by police.

The police tweets were fast. The very first one announced that the shooter was dead. Surveillance video was released before the 10 p.m. nightly newscast. Body camera footage came out the following morning, in line with the department's policy of releasing such video quickly. The stream of information was fast, continual and generally accurate.

“As we have made decisions about releasing body cam in police-shooting situations, I have said to some of my colleagues across the country, especially when this first started, that I was flying a jet trying not to crash it,” says Aaron, a 32-year police veteran. “And so far, it hasn’t crashed.”

CINCINNATI —

Shots were fired in broad daylight in College Hill on Sunday, just steps away from Cincinnati Police District 5.

Investigators said two men are in custody and no one was hit by gunfire.

But this is the latest shooting this weekend, bringing the number to four in 24 hours.

It just adds to the frustration being felt in the community.

Cincinnati police said they're putting a comprehensive plan to work and neighbors are helping.

We also talked with a man who saw the aftermath of the shooting in College Hill and he said he could not believe what happened.

"I am glad that we didn't get here a few minutes earlier," Andrew Vogel said.

Vogel came for Chinese food, but arrived to find broken glass, a gun in the street and yellow crime tape marking off the scene of a shootout near Hamilton and Cedar Avenues in College Hill.

"I know that the lady that runs the restaurant that we were in is freaked out," Vogel said.

Cincinnati police found two men fighting on the ground after hearing gunshots between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday, just steps from the offices of District 5.

No one was hit by gunfire, but police recovered drug paraphernalia and the gun, and also spotted a phone and smoke shop with a shattered window.

Both men are now in custody, according to police on the scene.

This follows three shootings on Saturday night.

The first, in Over-The-Rhine, at about 7:18 p.m. in the 200 block of W. McMicken Avenue where police said a man in his 40s was hit.

CPD said a second shooting happened at 7:30 p.m. in the 1700 block of Kinney Avenue in Evanston.

Police found a 43-year-old man had been shot and was driven to the hospital in a car.

The third shooting happened about two hours after that in Oakley outside Urban Air Adventure Park.

Cincinnati police said three people were shot and were taken to the hospital in a car.

We're told none of the victims have died.

Cincinnati police said they're tackling the violence with a comprehensive plan.

"We've really been maximizing our use of technology, our use of intelligence, have been very intentional about how we deploy," Lt. Col. Mike John told WLWT in an interview last week.

But people are shaken after a turbulent weekend.

"The gun, right over my shoulder, and that's scary. That's probably as close as I've ever been to a gun," Vogel said.

By our count, we now have at least 348 shootings in the city.

Police said neighbors are stepping up and calling to report these incidents.

They said they want to be part of the solution.

Cincinnati police ask anyone with information about the recent violence in the city to call CrimeStoppers at 513-352-3040. You can remain anonymous.

CINCINNATI —

With just three days left in 2020, the number of homicides and shootings in Cincinnati have already broken records, marking the city's deadliest year.

So far, there have been at least 90 homicides and at least 484 shootings.

Police and community leaders hope to reverse the trend in 2021.

They said there are a number of factors leading to this outcome, including the pandemic, job loss and in some cases, a lack of even basic necessities.

Community outreach advocates said it has been harder to address these needs from a distance.

At one homicide scene in Cincinnati, neighbors echoed how exhausting and overwhelming violence has become along their streets.

Yet the same heartbreak has been felt across the Queen City, as 484 shootings, with 85 of them deadly, shatter a struggling society in the face of the pandemic.

"Right now, they're on defense mode, and not only defense mode, survival mode, and that's what's happening right now on the streets," Pastor Peterson Mingo said.

Mingo works with the Cincinnati Police God Squad on those very streets, trying to connect with the disconnected.

He said a feeling of togetherness, of community, has been nearly muted by COVID-19.

"Because of the pandemic, a lot of that is gone, and now, people who basically could be talked down of basically doing the things that they were thinking about doing and not having that buffer, someone to come there and basically mediate the situation for them," Mingo said.

City of Cincinnati data sheds light on homicides in past years.

In 2017, there were 73 homicides.

In 2018, there were 61 homicides.

Last year, there were 74 homicides.

In 2020, there's been a nearly 22% increase from 2019, with at least 90 homicides.

As of Sunday, data we calculated shows Cincinnati outranks Chicago at 29.6 homicides per 100,000 people.

Chicago has counted 772 homicides in the same time-frame, which equates to 28.66 homicides per 100,000 people.

The city reported 475 homicides in mid-December 2019.

Police said connecting with the community through gun violence outreach workers, as well as work by the Gun Crimes Task Force will be a big part of efforts to reduce violence in 2021.

More than 1,400 illegal or stolen guns have been recovered this year compared to 1,057 guns in 2019, according to CPD.

Mingo said while this increase in gun violence is not a uniquely Cincinnati issue, it is a cry for help.

"It's nationwide, and if it's nationwide, then there's a common problem," he said.

Mingo said people are struggling to pay bills, feed their families and survive, and he fears for what the city may look like on the other side of the pandemic when assistance fades.

He hopes to see a more connected 2021 to stop the violence.

Cincinnati police said they also plan to strengthen partnerships with federal officials to help curb shootings.

They said oftentimes, shootings are sparked by risky behaviors, gambling in the streets and drugs by a small number of people.

Most major crimes in Hamilton were down the first half of this year compared with last year and prior years, but an increase in shootings has police so concerned, they recently signed a pact with federal agencies, according to the Journal-News.

“One area that is not trending down, and in fact is headed in the wrong direction, is our aggravated assaults. That’s largely by gun violence,” said Police Chief Craig Bucheit.

Aggravated assaults through June reached at least a four-year high, largely driven by gunshot wounds. There were 72 this year, compared to 59 last year, 55 in 2019 and 69 in 2018. This year’s assaults were 18% higher than the average of the years 2018-2020.

Bucheit attributed it to gangs, and others who are known to police.

“Just last week we met with the FBI and ATF (the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives),” and a detective will be assigned to their violent-crime task force, he said. That will “bring some additional resources to our community to address these issues.”

It also will help the city bring federal charges, and longer prison sentences, to those committing the shootings, Bucheit said. Often, people committing the shootings are those who have been charged with federal crimes and leave prison after a couple of years, he said.

“This gun violence that’s occurring, it’s a relatively small number of people in our community that are responsible for the vast majority of it.”

Police recently have been in a number of chases and confrontations with people bearing loaded weapons, Bucheit said. On Friday, at around 12:40 a.m., officers responded to a shooting at 1215 S. Second St., where they found an 18-year-old woman killed and two others needing hospitalization for gunshot wounds.

“Being able to partner with federal agencies and look at addressing this by more serious charges, federal charges, which carries the potential for significantly more jail time is something we’re excited about,” Bucheit said.

Police also have assigned extra shifts of patrols in areas that have been “hot spots” for such shootings.

The FBI did not return calls for comment.

Overall crime stats through June

Other major crimes in Hamilton have generally been trending down over the past few years, according to data the Journal-News requested of the police.

“What you see is a pretty substantial decline across the board, in all categories of crime,” Bucheit said. He credited work by police to build relationships with citizens in all neighborhoods as one reason, because it helps them better deal with crimes residents are seeing.

Here are other crime statistics:

• Murders were steady this year compared to prior years: 2 this year, with 2 every year from 2018 through 2020.
• Sex offenses were down 44% this year from the prior three-year average: 22 this year, compared with 28 in 2018, 46 in 2019, 43 in 2020.
• Robberies were down 31% from the three-year average: 32 this year, 68 in 2018, 39 in 2019, 32 in 2020.
• Drug and narcotic offenses were down 37%: 285 this year, compared with 488 in 2018, 486 in 2019, 387 in 2020. Bucheit said he did not believe a loosening in Ohio marijuana laws was a reason for that decrease.
• Kidnapping was down significantly: 5 this year compared with 14 in 2018, 18 in 2019, 8 in 2020.
• Larceny and theft offenses were down 27% from earlier years: 603 this year, compared with more than 800 each of the prior three years.
• Burglaries and breaking-and-entering also were down 33% from the earlier three years, with 159 this year compared with 197-275 each of the prior years.
• Motor vehicle thefts were down 9% from the three-year average, with 112 this year, compared with 99 in 2018, 137 in 2019, 132 in 2020.
• Drug overdoses were down 39% from the three-year average, with 164 this year, 258 in 2018, 312 in 2019, 235 in 2020.

Tense encounters with gun-toters

Just in the past couple of weeks, Bucheit said, Hamilton officers were involved in two incidents where they were chasing suspects.

“The officers were out doing exactly what we want,” he said. “They were checking these areas and looking for people that were potentially involved in some of this violence. They ended up locating these subjects, who take off running. They’re armed, and they’re in the process of taking these guns out while the officers are chasing them.

“This is a very dangerous situation, especially for our officers.”

Video above: Shooting 911 call audio released

Seven of the eight people killed were women; six were of Asian descent. The suspect, according to police, appeared to blame his actions on a "sex addiction."

While the U.S. has seen mass killings in recent years where police said gunmen had racist or misogynist motivations, advocates and scholars say the shootings this week at three Atlanta-area massage parlors targeted a group of people marginalized in more ways than one, in a crime that stitches together stigmas about race, gender, migrant work and sex work.

"In some ways this is another manifestation of the targeting of marginalized people in the U.S.," said Angela Jones, an associate professor of sociology at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, whose research has focused on race, gender, sexuality and sex work.

The killings in Atlanta follow a wave of recent attacks against Asian Americans since the coronavirus first entered the United States, with the majority of reports coming from women. The 21-year-old suspect denied his attack was racially motivated and claimed to have a "sex addiction," with authorities saying he apparently saw massage parlors as sources of temptation.

Police told a news conference Thursday that investigators believe the gunman previously visited two of the massage parlors, but it's not yet clear if any the businesses offered sexual services. The Atlanta mayor said police hadn't previously been there beyond a minor potential theft. Still, the suspect equated the parlors to sex, and that drove him to kill, police said.

"There's this assumption that all these massage parlor workers are sex workers. That may or may not be the case," said Esther Kao, an organizer with New York-based Red Canary Song, a group of Asian and Asian American sex workers and allies that does outreach to massage parlors. "The majority of massage parlors are licensed businesses that also provide professional, non-sexual massages."

"There's this assumption of sexuality and fetishization of Asian women's bodies that is unique to this kind of crime," she said.

At least one of the victims was a patron, not an employee. Thirty-three-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun and her husband had gone to the spa on a date, her mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. Yaun leaves behind a 13-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter.

The shootings follow high-profile instances of race and gender-based killings in recent years by white men. In 2014, a 22-year-old who had railed against women online killed six people and wounded 14 near the University of California, Santa Barbara. The following year, eight Black church members and their pastor were shot and killed in a racist attack in South Carolina. In 2018, a Florida gunman with what police called a "hatred towards women" killed two and injured five at a yoga studio. The year after that a shooter targeting Latinos opened fire at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, killing 22 people.

"This is a thread that is woven through the histories of these gunmen. Toxic masculinity is truly a problem in this country," said Shannon Watts, founder of the gun-control group Moms Demand Action.

The fact the Georgia shooter targeted the businesses because he linked them to commercial sex is a nightmare scenario for those who work in erotic industries and are increasingly subjected to online harassment and attempts to report massage parlors to the IRS, said Kate D'Adamo, an organizer and advocate for sex worker rights. "At its core it's about going out and targeting sex workers as fallen women, blaming them for social ills," she said.

Prostitution laws mean women also fear reporting harassment or violence to police, afraid of being arrested themselves or their pleas ignored, she said. Those fears are even more pronounced for women of color, those who are immigrants or those with few language skills.

They feel they can't report crimes to police, said Barbara Brents, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sociology professor who studies the sex industry. "When they do, sex workers are not taken seriously and they're also subject to arrest themselves."

Researchers who spoke to more than 100 Chinese and Korean workers at illicit massage parlors for a 2019 study found that while some women did say they felt deceived or coerced into jobs that involved sex work, many more chose the profession after having bad experiences in the few other types of generally low-paying jobs available to them, like restaurants and nail salons.

While there were some reports of exploitation or mistreatment by managers, an "alarming" 40% of women told researchers that a client had forced them to have sex in the last year, the study said.

In the Atlanta shooting, the suspect's claims of sex addiction, meanwhile, ring hollow for some. It is not a condition recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, said David Ley, a clinical psychologist and author of "The Myth of Sex Addiction." And while it was cited by celebrities for a time, the Harvey Weinstein case became an emblem of how it can be used as an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for abuse and assault, he said.

There's also a disturbing thread of racism in some online discussions of sex addiction, he said.

"They hold other people — the porn industry, sex workers, even women in general — responsible for triggering these sexual desires in them they are afraid of," he said.

Moral views can shape beliefs about sexuality, and friends described the Atlanta shooting suspect as being deeply Christian. He also told police he had planned to go to Florida to target the porn industry.

The sex-addiction claim is a way to redirect blame, Kao said. "He's absolutely taking no responsibility and putting all of that on the workers themselves and it also distracts from the race issue," she said.

Meanwhile, the suspect, Robert Aaron Long has been arrested on charges of murder and assault. It wasn't clear yet if he had a lawyer who would represent him.

Police said Long confessed to the crime and told officials about a "temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate."

Police shot a man to death in Covington on June 18 and released details about the confrontation hours later. Information about the Wednesday shooting death of a suspect wanted by U.S. Marshals took a full day to reach the public.

Kentucky State Police officers are investigating both incidents, as they do with most shootings involving police in the state of Kentucky. So why does the time between official statements vary so much?

The short answer, according to former University of Cincinnati police chief Gene Ferrara, is that police need time to verify what they’ve found before they start sharing information with the public or press.

“There's just so much about the investigation that really should be guarded in order to maintain the veracity of the investigation,” Ferrara said.

Ferrara, who spent 50 years in law enforcement, said many things complicate basic fact-finding: The number of witnesses, officers and agencies involved; the evidence at the scene; and the physical area in which a shooting occurs.

More police departments means more complication and more internal bureaucracy. The involvement of federal agencies such as the U.S. Marshals Service increases the workload even more.

“The smaller the investigation to uncover everything is, the quicker it can be done,” Ferrara said.

And if facts don’t line up right away at the scene, police need time to undertake deeper investigations, seek more interviews and gain a clear idea about what happened before they arrived.

“The more the statements of witnesses agree, then the less I have to go out to others,” according to Ferrara.

He compares the post-shooting investigation to elephant-watching. Two people looking at opposite ends of an elephant might describe completely different animals — it’s investigators’ job to take these disparate facts and figure out how they fit together.

Sometimes, seeing the whole elephant is easy. Sometimes it’s not.

Ferrara said disparities in the amount of time police take to release a statement about a shooting are not innately reason for concern.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Video: WTKR via CNN) —

Overnight shootings near the Atlantic oceanfront in Virginia Beach left two people dead and eight wounded in a scene described by authorities on Saturday as "very chaotic."

A woman who died was likely an innocent bystander, authorities said, while the other person, a Black man, was killed by a police officer. It was not clear if the man was armed and the officer's body camera was not activated at the time of the shooting.

Three men ranging in age from 18 to 22 have been arrested and face charges that include felonious assault and reckless handling of a firearm, Virginia Beach police said in a statement on Saturday.

The first shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Friday along an outdoor strip of hotels, clubs and restaurants that was densely packed with people on one of the first warm days of the year.

Witness Akereia Drayton said Saturday that she was coming out of a club on Friday night after the shooting ended and saw "mass chaos" and many people running.

"People were literally falling over themselves," Drayton said.

Investigators believe the first shooting stemmed from a fight involving a group of people, police said.

"Several individuals produced firearms and began shooting at each other, resulting in numerous people being wounded," the police department statement said.

Officers patrolling the area quickly responded, police said. But more gunfire followed several minutes later.

Police said they found a female bystander about a block away who died of her injuries from a second shooting incident. Investigators believe the woman's death was not related to the initial shooting.

At around the same time, police initially said that a uniformed officer in that area "encountered an armed citizen" and fatally shot him.

A firearm was found "in the vicinity" of the shooting, later Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said during a news conference Saturday night. The man was later identified as Donovon W. Lynch, 25, of Virginia Beach.

Neudigate said the officer who killed Lynch was wearing a body camera but, "for unknown reasons," it was not activated.

"We would like to provide the community answers. At this point we do not have them," the police chief said.

A Virginia Beach police officer was also struck by a vehicle, authorities said. He was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital.

"We have a very chaotic incident, a very chaotic night," Neudigate said.

A total of 10 people were wounded by gunfire, including the two who died, according to police.

Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital said four people wounded in the gunfire remained in the hospital on Saturday. All four of them were in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said in an email.

Three men were charged in the initial shooting incident, police said. They were identified as Ahmon Jahree Adams, 22, of neighboring Chesapeake, Virginia; Nyquez Tyyon Baker, 18, of Virginia Beach; and Devon Maurice Dorsey Jr., 20, of Virginia Beach.

Police said they are being held in a jail in Virginia Beach. It's unclear if they've hired attorneys, who could be contacted for comment on their behalf.

The bystander who died in the second shooting incident was Deshayla E. Harris, 28, of the nearby city of Norfolk, police said. No arrests have been made in connection with her death.

The officer who killed Lynch has been placed on administrative leave, police said. He has been with the department for five years and is assigned to its special operations division.

Lynch's father told WAVY-TV that his son was "a father's dream."

Adrian Montgomery, a security guard who works at one of the oceanfront hotels, said the initial shooting occurred in an outdoor area where a lot of young people hang out and "try to talk to girls."

Montgomery said a woman told a man that she didn't want his phone number, which led to an altercation between that man and another man.

An exchange of gunfire between the two men followed, Montgomery said, before more shots were fired between people who were friends with each of the respective shooters.

"At that point, it just became a shooting gallery," Montgomery said. "Whoever had a gun and felt threatened fired ... (They) were pulling out guns like they're cellphones."

Montgomery, 31, said the people he saw get shot appeared to be innocent bystanders. One of them was his 17-year-old nephew who had to have surgery.

Montgomery added that the Virginia Beach oceanfront, which includes a boardwalk, was packed with people who were shoulder-to-shoulder on a warm, but tension-filled spring night.

"There was no wiggle room," Montgomery said. "When you have no wiggle room, somebody is going to step on somebody. And somebody is going to try to be Mr. Tough Guy."

Police on Saturday were still processing the crime scene, which included two full blocks that mostly make up a city-owned parking lot.

Bill Feis, who lives a few houses away from the parking lot, said he was in bed and could hear people talking loudly before the shooting, which he said "sounded like someone threw a package of firecrackers."

___

Finley reported from Virginia Beach. Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland.

Police departments in communities northwest of Phoenix told CNN there were multiple shootings in the West Valley region Thursday afternoon.

"We have two people confirmed shot in random acts," Surprise police Sgt. Greg Welch told CNN. He said there were multiple shooting locations but could not provide an exact number.

Banner Health officials said three of their hospitals have received nine patients. Two patients were at Banner Boswell, three patients were at Banner Thunderbird and four patients were at Banner Del Webb.

It is unknown whether the patients had gunshot wounds or other injuries.

Banner Health officials, citing privacy laws, said they could not provide any additional information on the patients.

Suspect caught

A suspect was apprehended during a traffic stop in Surprise, Welch said. He says one of the two shooting victims in his community is hospitalized in critical condition.

Aerial video from CNN affiliate KPHO/KTVK showed a white SUV with doors open that the news station described as the suspect's vehicle.

Police in the community of Peoria also reported responding to "several shootings" Thursday but did not have further details.

Peoria is about 9 miles east of Surprise. Both are in the West Valley area of the Phoenix Metropolitan area, with Surprise about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

CINCINNATI — Community leaders in Price Hill are leading the charge against violence in a summer kickoff rally Saturday.

Their goal: to get ahead of the violence by doing everything they can to prevent a repeat of 2020, which Cincinnati Police say was the city's deadliest summer on record.

According to CPD data, 94 people were killed in 2020. More than half of those murders occurred from April to August, and there were nearly 500 total shootings.

So far, 31 people have been killed in Cincinnati in 2021.

That’s why leaders with the Cincinnati Works Phoenix Program want people to come outside their homes, talk about issues in their neighborhood and be a part of coming up with solutions.

Those concerns and solutions do not have to be crime-related -- it could be a safety concern, like more streetlights on a certain block.

"It's tragic when you have kids worried about ducking and dodging bullets,” said Mitch Morris with Cincinnati Works. “So we want to come in the community, bring some joy, bring some happiness and bring some resources in order to try to get people to start thinking differently and doing different things.”

The grillout event with Price Hill Safety CAT and Cincinnati Police PIVOT team starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at the corner of Ross Avenue and Warsaw Avenue.

Video above: Police in Colorado Springs provide an update on deadly birthday party shooting

A gunman opened fire at a family birthday party in Colorado Springs, leaving six people dead and a community in mourning.

"Words fall short to describe the tragedy that took place this morning," Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said in a statement. "From the officers who responded to the shooting to the investigators still on scene, we are all left incredibly shaken."

The suspected shooter — believed to be a boyfriend of one of the victims — is also dead, according to Colorado Springs Police.

The tragedy was one of at least nine mass shootings that occurred across the U.S. over the weekend.

At least 15 people were killed and 30 more injured in mass shootings since Friday night, according to CNN reporting and an analysis of data from Gun Violence Archive, local media and police reports.

CNN defines a mass shooting as incident with four or more people killed or wounded by gunfire — excluding the shooter.

From a townhome community and a neighborhood park, to a hotel and a nightclub, these are the mass shootings that shook communities across seven states.

Phoenix

An overnight shooting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel left one man dead and at least seven others wounded, Phoenix Police Sgt. Margaret Cox said during a news conference Sunday morning.

A group attending an event at the hotel got into an altercation that resulted in the gunfire, Cox said. All of the victims are believed to be between the ages of 18 and 22.

Cox told reporters there was more than one shooter, but investigators are trying to find exactly how many and what types of guns were used.

The shooting was an isolated incident and not a random act, she added.

Woodlawn, Maryland

Three people are dead and another was injured during a shooting at a townhome Saturday morning just outside of Baltimore, authorities said.

Police responded to a call for an active shooter and fire scene at a townhome community in the Woodlawn suburb, the Baltimore County Police Department said in a news release.

Investigators say the suspect lit his residence on fire and forced his way into his neighbors' home, where he then shot and stabbed them, according to the release. He shot two more neighbors as they came out of their home, including a 24-year-old who died, the release said.

The suspect was confronted by responding officers who ordered him drop his handgun, according to the release. He was then shot by officers and taken into custody after refusing, the release said, and later died in the hospital.

California

At least three people were killed and nine others injured in three separate shootings in California.

In Los Angeles, one person died and five others were injured in a shooting late Sunday night.

Three people with gunshot injuries were taken to hospitals in critical condition and a fifth person who suffered a non-life-threatening injury was also transported, according to a media alert from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

On Saturday, four people were injured in a shooting outside of a nightclub in Citrus Heights, police told KCRA.

Officers found several fights happening in the parking lot of the club and surrounding area, according to the affiliate.

That same night, more than 400 miles away in Compton, police were in the area when they heard shots fired.

Deputies found two men believed to be 15-20 years old dead at the scene, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Police were later alerted to two other people seeking treatment for gunshot wounds at a nearby hospital.

Newark

Four people were injured in a shooting in Newark, New Jersey, on Sunday, according to a tweet from the police department.

Two men and two women "were injured by gunfire," according to the tweet.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 1-877-NWK-TIPS to provide tips.

Milwaukee

Authorities in Milwaukee are investigating a shooting that injured four people on Saturday afternoon, a news release from the Milwaukee Police Department said.

The victims, ages 23 to 45, all suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the release said.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the shooting and charges will be forwarded to the prosecutor's office in the coming days, according to the release.

St. Louis County, Missouri

Two people are dead and three others injured after a shooting in a park in Kinloch, Missouri, on Friday night, St. Louis County Police said in a news release.

"It was all peaceful and beautiful and next thing you know ... gunfire just erupted," Willoid Williams, who witnessed the shooting, told KMOV.

Williams said he was in the area for a "neighborhood celebration" when a truck pulled up and started shooting.

"It's just outrageous, it was crazy," Williams said.

Police said they did not find any victims when they arrived at the scene around 6:30 p.m., but later found that five people had taken themselves to the hospital.

Two of the men were pronounced dead at the hospital while the other victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release.

The investigation is ongoing and police are asking anyone with information to call the St. Louis County Police Department.