morning. a lot going on. yeah, there is. we have important new developments after the murder of eight people in georgia. six of them asian women. asian-americans on edge in the u.s. and you can understand why. authorities are noting the suspect claims the shootings were not racially motivated. but he says were the result of sexual addiction. a sheriff s deputy facing backlash for this description of the suspect s frame of mind. he understood the gravity of it. and he was pretty much fed up and had been kind of at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. also new, russia responds to president biden calling vladimir putin a killer. mr. biden s comments were labeled as unprecedented. we ll have much more from the white house on that in a moment. but we want to begin with natasha chen with the very latest on the georgia investigation. good morning. reporter: good morning, erica. we re in cherokee county where the suspect is
started. you are for that reform and bringing back the filibuster. i am. that s what it was supposed to be. the idea is almost getting to the point where there is, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning. maria: democrats have been pushing to kill or reform the filibuster since with biden took office knowing it is truly the republican s last line of defense against their radical agenda. but they heard biden s comments this morning and now they cannot wait to get to work. biden s remarks are a major shift in his position. he has given new energy and potential movement to the reform effort. he recognizes his program will be stopped unless we reform the filibuster. maria: don t like the rules of the game? change the rules. apparently that s the democrat motto when in power. mitch mcconnell has seen it happen over and over again. so i guess where they stand depends on where they sit. and so when they are in a position to advance the ball, they don t care.
this is new day with alisyn camerota and john berman. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is new day. erica hill is with me this morning. developing overnight, security increased in cities across the country. new concerns of anti-asian crime after a deadly murder spree near atlanta targeting the massage parlors. at least eight people killed. according to the atlanta journal constitution, six of them were asian women. a suspect, 26-year-old robert aaron long is in custody and police are not talking about a motive but the concern that these shootings could be racially motivated is real. ryan young is in atlanta with the late-breaking details for us. good morning. reporter: erica, just a devastating attack. leaving a lot of people in the community asking why. you can see one of the massage parlors across the street here and this was surrounded by police for hours and we re waiting to hear what the motive was. a shooting rampag
asian. news of the shooting sparked a new round of fear, a fresh round of fear across the country given the rise of anti-asian hate crimes since the start of the pandemic. the white house says president biden is monitoring the developments out of georgia. attorney general merrick garland and fbi director chris wray are set to brief the president on these developments throughout the day. let s start this hour in georgia with the latest from the shooting scene. ryan young is joining me right now. ryan, that police briefing just wrapped up. they did release quite a lot of information. reporter: kate, i m just surprised by how much information we ve gotten so far in this case. you can really see the coordination that was involved in bringing the suspect to justice in terms of being able to capture him yesterday. this entire area was put on alert after the shootings occurred. we are standing in atlanta. the original shooting happened in cherokee county which is about 47 minutes
he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places and it s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate. you heard him, a temptation he wanted to eliminate. but the atlanta mayor is praising police for acting so quickly because they say this could have been so much worse. the suspect indicated that he was heading down to florida perhaps to carry out similar crimes. we have much more on that. other top stories this afternoon, president joe biden is defending the administration s handling of the thousands of unaccompanied minors crossing the border, urging anyone considering migrating to the united states to stay home. i can say quite clearly don t come over. and in the process of getting set up, don t leave your town or city or community. and exciting news in the fight against the pandemic. access to covid vaccines is expanding to any person 16 or older in multiple states. as of now, all 50 states have fully va