A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlours in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Atlanta area massage parlor shootings: Most of the 8 killed were of Asian descent
Updated Mar 17, 2021;
Posted Mar 17, 2021
Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)AP
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By KATE BRUMBACK, The Associated Press
Police said the motive wasn’t immediately known, but the ethnicity of many of the victims prompted fears that the killings could be yet another hate crime against Asian Americans.
The attacks began Tuesday evening, when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in Acworth, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said. Two people died at the scene, and three were taken to a hospital where two died, Baker said.
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Georgia shooting suspect may have ‘sex addiction’: Police
A white man accused of killing eight people, most of whom were of Asian descent, at massage parlors in the Atlanta area told police the attack was not racially motivated and that he potentially had a âsex addiction,â officials said Wednesday.
Still, authorities said they were investigating whether the deaths were hate crimes amid concerns over a wave of attacks on Asian Americans. Six of the victims were identified as Asian and seven were women.
It was not clear if Robert Aaron Long, 21, ever went to the parlors where the shootings occurred; one official said he had while another indicated he may have only visited businesses like them. Authorities also said he was planning to go to Florida in a plot to attack âsome type of porn industry.â
Flowers, candles and signs are displayed at a makeshift memorial outside of the Gold Spa in Atlanta, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. According to authorities, three Asian women were found dead inside of the Gold Spa on Tuesday night and another Asian woman was found dead at Aromatherapy Spa across the street. Police in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County say they ve begun extra patrols in and around Asian businesses there following the shooting at three massage parlors in the area that killed eight, most of them women of Asian descent.
Alyssa Pointer - member online, Atlanta Journal-Constitution