Former employee faces felony charges for threat to kill workers at site of Half Moon Bay mass shooting

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — A former employee of the mushroom farm where last year’s mass shooting occurred is facing felony charges after threatening to execute four coworkers and vandalizing their cars, according to case notes from prosecutors.

Around 11:30 a.m. on July 24, Edin Moises Guerra Ortiz, a 24-year-old resident of Half Moon Bay, approached four farm workers at the Mountain Mushroom Farm while they were on their lunch break.

Guerra Ortiz was angry and motioned to the victims as if he was holding a handgun, according to the case notes. He shouted at the four farmworkers to kneel down so he could execute them and made threats to kill.

The Mushroom Mountain Farm was one site of a mass shooting by a disgruntled worker that killed seven people in January 2023. Knowing the workplace’s history, the victims were terrified, according to case notes. None of the victims in this case witnessed the mass shooting last year, Wagstaffe said in an interview Wednesday.

“There must be something about working on that mushroom farm that makes people angry,” Wagstaffe said.

Wagstaffe pointed to a third unrelated incident from July 2022 when the former manager of the farm broke into a farm worker’s trailer and threatened to kill him and his family. He shot a handgun through the trailer, but there were no injuries reported. The manager was charged with attempted murder.

Guerra Ortiz had been fired from the farm days before, according to the case notes. He brought his 4-year-old son with him when he made the threats. Authorities also found that the suspect had slashed the car tires of an employee’s car and vandalized a fence, according to the case notes.

Police arrested Guerra Ortiz at his mother’s home on July 30; he allegedly told police that he had tried to scare the victims after they laughed about a personal problem involving Guerra Ortiz.

“But that certainly was his motive – just anger,” Wagstaffe said.

Guerra Ortiz is facing four felony charges of making criminal threats and four felony charges of vandalism, according to case notes. His preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon. He remains in custody on $140,000 bail.

“His statement, of course, was, ‘I was just trying to scare them,’ ” Wagstaffe said. “They didn’t know that … They were afraid they were going to be the next mass shooting – there was some real terror.”