all three locations are massage parlors. a suspected shooter first entered a business called young's asian massage parlor in cherokee county, about 45 minutes outside of atlanta. police say the shooter at that location spot and killed three people there at that massage parlor and injured two others. then in a different location, less than an hour later, four more people shot and killed at two additional massage parlors in atlanta. again, so this is metro atlanta, cherokee county, and atlanta proper. now, officials have not said whether they think these shootings at three places were connected, but police did note tonight that the shootings took place at three spas, three massage parlors, where the majority of the employees are asian. police say all four victims who were shot and killed at the second and third locations appeared to be asian women. now, police say they have not yet identified a suspect or a motive. but again, nbc's affiliate in atlanta is confirming just within the past few minutes that a suspect is in custody in connection with these crimes. it is important, of course, to note here as context that this news, this breaking news comes tonight at a time when hate crimes targeting asian-americans has skyrocketed, not just in the last year, but specifically within the past few weeks. that can't be far from our minds as we absorb this developing story out of atlanta. joining us now on the phone is nbc news's atlanta-based correspondent blayne alexander who is following this story closely tonight. blayne, let me ask you, i know this is a developing and fluid story. did i say anything there that is wrong? is there anything that you can update us on current reporting? >> reporter: nothing wrong, i do have one update, an unfortunate one to bring to you. it does appear there has been an additional casualty. we've just gotten an update from the cherokee county captain who has been updating us throughout the evening, and he says that one of the injured individuals has passed. so now it does look like that brings the death toll unfortunately to eight people in this combination of three shootings. you laid it out there pretty well. i mean, what we're looking at are three different locations. it seems most of this unfolded over the course of about an hour or so. so the first one was about 45 minutes, maybe an hour north of atlanta. that's where that first shooting took place. and that's where officials say they do have the suspect in custody, as you mentioned. we're learning a little bit more about him. he's a 21-year-old, his name is robert aaron long. he was taken into custody after officials, you know, were able to release a surveillance photo of him and were able to capture him in a different county. my understanding is that they did a sort of pit maneuver on him, and essentially were able to take him into custody as he was fleeing and on the road. he was taken into custody without incident. that's according to the captain there in cherokee county. but then he came back down to metro atlanta, kind of the north atlanta area, the buckhead area, for those who are familiar with this area, and he was at two different massage parlors which were across the street from one another. atlanta police told us they had actually gotten calls from one of them. they were told it was a robbery in progress. they responded to a robbery in progress, and while there they got a call for shots fired at a parlor across the street. those two different scenes are something they're looking at. of course, the big question we're asking, are they connected, are the two different in the different counties connected? they say it's too early to say whether they're connected, it's too early to determine if this was any sort of a hate crime or anything like that. they say they certainly are in touch with officials in the other counties to determine what, if anything, connected these incidents overnight, rachel. >> blayne, do you know, and have authorities been able to confirm that the three different sites, these spas, day spas or massage parlors that were targeted, were all essentially at least marketed as asian spas? obviously, we're thinking about this in terms of whether or not somebody may have specifically been targeting asian-americans for these multiple shootings. were these all spas that were marketed as asian locations? >> in cherokee county, in the first shooting, that is certainly the case. the other two, we're still getting information on those. but we do know that's the case in the cherokee county shooting, and that's something that the public information officer, the captain up there, spoke about when he was giving his first and initial briefing. and again, he wouldn't go so far as to say whether it was targeted for that reason. but he did make note of have when he was giving his first briefing, rachel. >> and, blayne, you mentioned there is a 21-year-old man, robert aaron long, who is said now to be in custody. do we know anything about why police targeted him, why they were able to release a photo of him, why they apprehended him? do we know about why they believe he is connected to these crimes? >> from what we understand, they just had that surveillance video. we do understand there were some witnesses inside the business at the time. police, of course, are trying to talk to them, trying to get any information from them. but there were some people who were able to see what happened. now, the 911 call, as we understand, came from two people who were actually inside the building that were not shot and were not injured, fortunately. they're the ones who made the calls. police are still trying to talk to them to figure out what exactly they know. they have not released that information to us. but it's certainly possible that information could have come from those who witnessed this, at least in part, rachel. >> blayne alexander, nbc news, atlanta-based correspondent following this story closely as it continues to develop. blayne, i have a feeling we'll be back with you sooner rather than later on this story. thank you for joining us on short notice tonight. again, this is news that we are following as a developing story, the bottom line is that what we're looking at here is, we believe, eight dead. additional people injured. shootings at three different massage parlors or day spas in the atlanta area, one in cherokee county as blayne described, about 45 minutes or an hour north of atlanta, the other two in atlanta proper. police do have a suspect in custody now. recently, now, a 21-year-old man who is in custody in conjunction with these attacks. but we don't know more than that. this is the photo that we've got of the alleged suspect or at least the person who is in custody tonight. we don't know more about this. but obviously part of what is front of mind here is the surge in anti-asian-american hate crimes in multiple states in recent days, especially because we know at least the first of these massage parlors targeted tonight was marketed as an asian day spa, an asian massage parlor. we have been told that multiple of the deceased victims, several of the deceased victims tonight are asian women. disturbing story that is continuing to develop tonight in the atlanta area. we will let you know more as we learn more. all right. on friday night's show here, you may remember us reporting on a sort of disturbing finding related to the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. this photo that we showed on friday night's show is the badge of d.c. metropolitan police officer michael fanone who was injured in the capitol attack. his badge was recovered by the fbi after it was dug up out of a man's backyard in buffalo, new york. according to prosecutors, thomas sibick participated in the attack on the capitol and specifically participated in a trump supporter mob attack against officer fanone. in that attack, the officer was dragged into the mob, he was beaten severely, the mob tried to grab his pistol and screamed that they would kill him with his own gun. the police officer described hearing the mob shout that at him. there is corroborating evidence that has also been cited by prosecutors of that. the mob did not end up shooting the officer with his own gun but they did end up tasing him multiple times in the neck from close range. the officer was rendered unconscious, he suffered a heart attack, he was hospitalized. prosecutors say in the midst of that attack, it was thomas sibick of buffalo, new york, who ripped officer fanone's badge off, as well as his police radio. he then according to prosecutors repeatedly lied about that to investigators but then ultimately they did recover officer michael fanone's badge buried in thomas sibick's backyard in buffalo, new york. so we reported on this case on friday night after we got hold of the court documents in this case, in part, because they were so dramatic and, in part, because it appears to go some distance toward explaining if not solving the case of the nearly fatal attack on that particular d.c. police officer. but to be honest, we also covered that court proceeding on friday night because of the surprising development that after recovering officer fanone's badge buried in this guy's backyard, after identifying this guy as one of the mob who allegedly attacked this officer and then lied about it to investigators, and then took home the trophy that he stole from the officer in the attack to bury it in his yard, after hearing about all of that and seeing all the evidence prosecutors presented about that, after thomas sibick was charged with assaulting this officer, the judge hearing his case, after he was arrested friday night in buffalo, let thomas sibick go home. prosecutors asked for sibick to be held in bail pending his trial. the judge said, no, he's free to go home, no problem. that was part of why we covered that on friday night, because that was such a surprising decision that somebody implicated in crimes that violent and that serious, targeting a police officer, would be set free on their own recognizance. well, we have an update for you on that tonight. today, the chief judge of the federal district court in washington, d.c., chief judge beryl howell, reversed that decision and has, in fact, ordered that thomas sibick has to wait in jail while his case is pending, he's no longer in home confinement. there were a number of cases were judges were capitol rioters were arrested, they moved to let the defendants go and spend their time at home. this is at least the fifth case now where we know a federal judge in d.c. has had to wade in and overrule a local judge's decision so these capitol riot defendants actually do have to stay in jail. if you're merrick garland starting your first full week at the u.s. justice department as america's new attorney general, cases like this, i imagine, are giving you dyspepsia already. welcome to the sand traps and trip wires that await you in the 300 plus criminal cases that are already pending against members of the mob of trump supporters who violently attacked the capitol to try to keep the former president in office. welcome also for merrick garland today to this little bouquet of lit fireworks that was left on the doorstep of the new attorney general by democratic senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. senator whitehouse is a former federal prosecutor. senator whitehouse was u.s. attorney in rhode island, he was attorney general of the state of rhode island, he is on the judiciary committee in the senate. when it comes to the department of justice and matters involving the justice system, senator whitehouse knows of what he speaks. today, he sent this over to attorney general merrick garland. and it's nice in a way, it ends with a little handwritten postscript that says right next to senator whitehouse's signature it says, with congratulations and best regards. which is nice, that he put that on the letter. nice to see those kinds of well-wishes. but what this letter is, is a list of some of the most gigantic messes and scandals left behind by the trump administration, which senator whitehouse would now please like attorney general merrick garland to clean up, including what senator whitehouse describes as the, quote, politically constrained and perhaps fake fbi investigation into serious sexual misconduct allegations made against then-supreme-court nominee, now supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. the white house says, quote, if standard procedures were violated and the fbi conducted a fake investigation rather than a sincere, thorough, and professional one, that merits congressional oversight to understand how, why, and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance this was done. the senator says, quote. so brett kavanaugh, of course, faced serious allegations of sexual misconduct, even sexual assault, while he was a nominee for the united states supreme court, part of the fight over his nomination was that the fbi would do essentially an examination of those claims. senator whitehouse says the fbi investigation into those claims against brett kavanaugh was not a real investigation, it was not conducted according to fbi standards, and he says the fbi's refusal to answer any questions about it since is a sign that something was fishy there. so senator whitehouse writing to attorney general merrick garland today saying, welcome to your new job, among other things, i would like you to provide answers about what went wrong in the brett kavanaugh investigation that i believe was a fake investigation and not a real one, conducted and then covered up by the fbi. wow. and, yes, we're talking about the subject of an fbi investigation who is now a sitting supreme court justice, right? so this is a hotter than average hot potato. and because senator whitehouse is not a shy senator, he is also demanding a review of a number of trump administration justice department decisions to take actions that appear to have been potentially improper but they were nevertheless things that were demanded by president trump. he wants a review of a number of those decisions by the trump justice department. he's also asking, no small thing, for attorney general merrick garland to take a hard look at that justice department policy that says you're not supposed to indict a sitting president. and, you know, fair enough, that probably does need looking at. but, you know, with congratulations and best regards, mr. attorney general, enjoy the numerous things that are actively on fire that i have just left on your doorstep as a housewarming present. but then, even after all that, late this afternoon, things got considerably hotter, including for the new attorney general, with the release of this actually quite remarkable document from the office of the director of national intelligence. now, a classified version of this document was apparently completed and submitted the first week in january, right around the time of the attack on the capitol, incidentally. but what we got today is the declassified version of have report. and because it's declassified, we, the public, are allowed to see it. it's a new law, actually, that says that reports like this have to come out, including versions of them that can be released to the public, after every major election now. after the 2016 interference in our presidential election by russia, one of the results of that, one of the changes made after that, which i actually wasn't aware of until today, is that the intelligence community does, after every major election, have to do a report now on foreign adversaries' efforts to influence or interfere with our american elections. we will have that now, apparently by law, with every new major election, from here on out. this is the first one that we have seen, and it's a doozy. for one thing, it explains this. last month, february, seemingly out of the blue, the fbi's washington field office posted this "wanted by the fbi" poster, which includes a really quite large new reward for any information leading to the capture of this particular fugitive. the man is a russian citizen. his name is konstantin kilimnik. the wanted poster they put out. him last month says he is assessed by the fbi and wanted. an arrest warrant was issued for him in the summer of 2018. but, nevertheless now, or at least last month, they are suddenly offering a huge new reward, $225,000 could be yours if you provide the fbi with information that leads to his arrest. again, the arrest warrant for him has been out there for more than a couple of years. but suddenly, new urgency from the fbi about trying to get him and a boatload of new reward money. $225,000 reward is a big deal. the fbi suddenly trying with some urgency to track him down. so we didn't know why that new alert on konstantin kilimnick was posted by the fbi last month. but now we know. that was posted last month. that was in between the classified version of this report and the public version that we just got. right? the intelligence community finished a classified report on foreign adversaries' efforts to interfere with and influence our 2020 election. they finished that in january. they put out this thing, please help us find konstantin kilimnik in february and now we've just received the unclassified version of that report released to the public. and perhaps this is why, right? perhaps the roll of konstantin kilimnik of trying to interfere into a foreign adversary in our last election is why the fbi feels some urgency in trying to get this guy. konstantin kilimnik is now according to this new report, evidence is by u.s. intelligence to have trying to affect two consecutive presidential elections, in 2016 and 2020. the u.s. intelligence community believes in both those elections he was running operations on behalf of the kremlin to try to get donald trump into the white house in 2016 and to try to keep him there in 2020. and the reason his name is familiar is because his name did surface in big ways in the mueller investigation, and his name surfaced in an even bigger way last fall when the senate intelligence committee put out their bipartisan report on what happened in 2016. this guy kilimnik had a starring role in that report, perhaps more of a starring role than any other single person. the senate intelligence report said bluntly, konstantin kilimnik is a russian intelligence officer. and that was an important blunt assertion, because he was so involved with the trump campaign in 2016 while he was apparently serving as a russian intelligence officer. you might remember the reporting that kilimnik went way back with president trump's 2016 campaign chairman paul manafort. you may also remember the reporting that during the 2016 campaign, manafort, for some reason, decided to convey sensitive, non-public, trump campaign data. strategy documents, internal polling documents, to this guy, konstantin kilimnik, who was a russian intelligence officer. why did manafort feed sensitive, non-public trump campaign data to a russian intelligence officer during the campaign while the russia government was engaging in a big hacking operation to help trump win? the senate intelligence report said, quote, kilimnik likely served as a channel to manafort for russian intelligence services. this said they could never discern what was going on there, why trump's campaign chairman was shoveling all that campaign material to a russian intelligence officer. they said they never got to the bottom of it because even though, quote, manafort was interviewed a dozen times, he lied consistently during these interviews about one issue in particular, his interactions with kilimnik, the russian intelligence officer at the center of the committee's investigation. these lies violated paul manafort's plea agreement, which obligated him to be truthful in his cooperatio