atlanta area spas late yesterday. 21-year-old robert long has been charged with eight counts of murder, will make his first court appearance tomorrow. police say the gunman told them he was not motivated by race, but they of course have not ruled that out. we ve received a number of calls about is this a hate crime. we are still early in this investigation. so we cannot make that determination at this moment. the shootings come amid an alarming escalation of crimes against asians in this country. and yes, it coincides with ugly rhetoric from former president trump and others linking the coronavirus and china as the pandemic worsened across our country. one group tracking anti-asian hate say they ve received some reports of 3,800 incidents with over two thirds of the attacks reported by women. today the vice president, president, atlanta s mayor all condemned such crimes. whatever the motivation here i know that asian-americans are very concerned. we ve been speaking abo
all but one of the women killed were asian. the suspect was apprehended and taken into custody late last night and charged today with eight counts of murder. law enforcement said he has admitted to the shootings and police told him he has a sex adiction and why he said he killed all of those women working in the spas, because he wanted to eliminate his temptation for his adiction. police say he gave them no indication the killings were racially motivated. police captain in the cherokee county sheriff s department. when he discussed the suspect s explanation, he told reporters it was because the suspect was having a bad day yesterday. that is what he said as if that was an explanation for why the young man murdered eight people. the police captain said yesterday was a really bad day for him and that is what he did. the remarks imply that having a bad day is the explanation we need for what the murderer did. those remarks were met with an immediate backlash given the nature of
and yes, it coincides with ugly rhetoric from former president trump and others linking the coronavirus and china as the pandemic worsened across our country. one group tracking anti-asian hate say they ve received some reports of 3,800 incidents with over two thirds of the attacks reported by women. today the vice president, president, atlanta s mayor all condemned such crimes. whatever the motivation here i know that asian-americans are very concerned. we ve been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple of months and i think it is very, very troubling. i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged. this is an issue that s happening across the country. it is unacceptable. it is hateful, and it has to stop. just today the director of national intelligence, the dni, released a new report about extremist violence compiled with the help of the justice