Seven Chinese labourers were shot dead at a farm and a trucking firm in northern California on Monday, the second mass shooting in the state in three days.

The suspect was named as Zhao Chunli, 67, of Half Moon Bay, who was later found in his car outside the sheriff’s office in Half Moon Bay, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said.

California state Sen. Josh Becker, who represents the area, said people were killed in two shootings on the outskirts of Half Moon Bay, a city about 30 miles south of San Francisco, at around 5pm local time. San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa tweeted that one shooting happened at a mushroom farm.

The victims are Chinese farmworkers, Half Moon Bay Councilmember, Debbie Ruddock said. A motive for the shooting is under investigation.

The shooting came two days after 11 people – mostly elderly Chinese residents – were killed at a Lunar New Year festival in Monterey Park, southern California. Officials called this the deadliest mass shooting in Los Angeles County’s history.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has been in Monterey Park where that massacre took place, took to Twitter moments after news broke of the new shooting.

“At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy upon tragedy,” he said.

Mr Newsom said of the latest shooting: “This Second Amendment is becoming a suicide pact, it feels like. California’s 37 per cent lower than the death rate of the rest of the nation, and yet, with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a damn. I can’t get anything done in Congress.”