ATLANTA – Authorities arrested a 21-year-old Georgia man Tuesday after investigators said he opened fire in three different Atlanta subway spas earlier that day, killing eight people and injuring one another.
Several women of Asian descent were among the victims. The authorities continue to investigate the motive for the attack.
We know the following so far:
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1. Authorities identified the suspect as Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia.
Captain Jay Baker, a spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, identified the suspected shooter as Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock. Authorities said he shot at least nine people at a massage parlor in Cherokee County and two others in northeast Atlanta on Tuesday evening.
“The suspect has taken responsibility for the shootings,” Baker said at a press conference on Wednesday.
JUST IN: Robert Aaron Long, 21, is jailed for accused of murdering 8 people in a rampage against Asian massage parlors on Metro Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/xrU5JCNCMx
– Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) March 17, 2021
Police said video footage also showed Long’s vehicle near the Atlanta spas at the time of the shooting, The Associated Press reported.
>> Related: Atlanta Spa Shoots: Suspect May Have “Sexual Addiction”
2. Investigators believe that Long may have been motivated by a sex addiction.
Authorities reiterated Wednesday that it was too early to say whether Tuesday’s fatal shootings constituted a hate crime.
“We got a number of calls about ‘is this a hate crime? “Received,” said Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant on Wednesday. “We are still in the early stages of this investigation, so we cannot make that decision at this time.”
Atlanta police chief Rodney Bryant on whether shooting in the Atlanta area was a hate crime:
“We are still in the early stages of this investigation, so we cannot make that decision at this time.” pic.twitter.com/Wr1nSza91T
– The recount (@therecount) March 17, 2021
Baker said Wednesday that Long told investigators the shootings were not racially motivated.
“He’s apparently having problems with what he thinks is sex addiction,” he said. “(He) sees these places as … a temptation for him to be removed.”
Atlanta area officials said the suspect alleged that the massage parlor shootings were not racially motivated but that he intended to “clean up” places that he saw as “temptations” to his sex addiction
– NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 17, 2021
Frank Reynolds, Cherokee County sheriff, said Long had “visited and possibly flogged these places in the past,” although he also said the attacks may have been “targets of the occasion”.
“The indicators at the moment may not be. This could be a target of the opportunity, ”Cherokee County Sheriff Reynolds said when asked if the suspect, who was arrested in a series of shootings at three Atlanta area spas, was racially motivated. At least 8 people were killed, 6 of them Asian women pic.twitter.com/a0YND1waAE
– Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) March 17, 2021
In interviews with CNN and Reuters, former roommate Tyler Bayless said Long sought treatment for sex addiction and lived in a rehab facility from late 2019 to early 2020.
“In the middle of the house, he would label some of his sexual relapses as ‘relapses’, as he called them,” Bayless, who was being treated for drug addiction at the time and was living in the same unit as Long, told Reuters. “He would feel a deep sense of repentance and shame and say he must return to prayer and return to God.”
On Tuesday, the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate released a statement calling the incident an “unspeakable tragedy”.
“The reported shootings of Asian American women in Atlanta on Tuesday are an indescribable tragedy – primarily for the families of the victims, but also for the AAPI community – which has been riddled with high levels of racial discrimination,” Stop AAPI Hate tweeted Tuesday Night. “Few details were released, including whether or not the shootings were hate-related or hate-motivated. But right now there is a lot of fear and pain in the Asian-American community that needs to be addressed. “
South Korean Foreign Ministry diplomats confirmed that four victims were women of Korean descent, but officials have not yet confirmed their nationality, according to the AP.
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3. Long could be the next company to be targeted in Florida.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Wednesday that investigators decided Long to travel to Florida after Tuesday’s shooting to carry out similar attacks.
“It really speaks for the coordination and quick response from law enforcement agencies because as tragic as this was for Metro Atlanta yesterday, it could have been a lot worse,” she said. “It is very likely that there would have been more victims.”
Baker said Long planned to “target some type of porn industry in this state”.
Atlanta area officials say the day spa shootout suspect may also have targeted a Florida “porn industry” location. Pic.twitter.com/O3zgPEk6vJ
– NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 17, 2021
4. Tuesday’s fatal shootings began at a spa near Acworth.
MPs were called to Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth on Tuesday at around 5 p.m. ET, Howard J. Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, told CNN. Authorities said four people – including two women of Asian descent, a white woman and a white man – were killed and a Spanish man injured after a gunman opened fire, the Washington Post reported.
Almost an hour later, Atlanta police responded to two spas on Piedmont Road in which, according to WSB-TV, four women of Asian descent had been shot – three at the Gold Spa and one at the Aromatherapy Spa.
The authorities have not yet released the names of the victims.
5. Long was captured in South Georgia on Tuesday evening.
In a Facebook video shared Tuesday night, Crisp County’s sheriff Billy Hancock said that authorities had been told that Long was headed to their area. MPs and state forces “contacted the suspect around 8:30 p.m. ET on Interstate 75,” Hancock said.
Hancock said a soldier performed a pursuit intervention technique on the black Hyundai Tucson in 2007 that caused it to “get out of control,” the AP reported. Long was then arrested, said the sheriff.
At around 8:00 p.m., the Crisp County Sheriffs Office received information from Sheriff Frank Reynolds that a wanted suspect was traveling south on the GA401 / I75. A 2007 black Hyundai Tucson was spotted around mile 101 south by Georgia State Patrol and Crisp Counties. A GSP soldier performed a PIT maneuver around the 93 mile mark. The suspect was arrested without incident and taken to the Crisp County Detention Center.
Posted by Crisp County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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