Seven people were killed and another was severely injured by a mass shooter in Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon, Reuters reports.

The coastal northern California city has been recently hit by tragedy, with a series of heavy rain storms affecting immigrant laborers in the area, farm advocates told Reuters.

Additionally, a series of atmospheric rivers killed 20 people statewide in the three weeks following Christmas.

San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller told reporters that the amount of stress the community has been exposed to of late has deeply affected morale.

"There were farmworkers affected tonight. There were children on the scene at the incidents. This is a truly heartbreaking tragedy in our community," Mueller told the news site.

The suspect was identified as Chunli Zhao (67), who told police he worked at one of the two shooting locations.

Authorities later identified Zhao’s workplace as a mushroom farm, where four of the seven fatal victims were shot.

Zhao is cooperating with the legal proceedings, however the local department has yet to establish a motive.