the suspect in the killing spree that left eight people dead at three different spas in atlanta felt tortured by sexual addiction. six asian-american women who were shot and killed yesterday. the asian community is once again being target. the country still averaging over 50,000 new cases every day. when we see a plateau like that that predicts another surge. we are vaccinating really well. that s the good news. these variants are spreading that s the bad news. 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. it s thursday, march 18th, 6:00 here in new york. erica hill is here with me again. always good to be here. we have a lot going on. this is what we know this morning. the asian-american community in this country is on edge understandably. the murder rampage in georgia left eight people dead, six of them asian women. anti-asian hate crime up nearly 150% in maj
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
stereotypes in this attack. this isn t just a local story either. this speaks to the fear of asian americans nationwide and how they have been targeted especially since the start of the pandemic. we ve just learned that the president and the vice president will be traveling to atlanta tomorrow. they will be meeting with asian american leaders when they are there. let s start with natasha chen, she is joining us from cherokee county, georgia with the very latest. if we could just start with the latest on the case. why was this first court appearance canceled? reporter: yeah, we talked to the magistrate court clerk this morning and she said that the appearance was canceled at the request of the defendant s attorney and would not share any contact information for that attorney. right now we don t know when it will be rescheduled. and at this point, he is still being held in the cherokee county custody, this is one of two counties where he now faces a total of eight murder char
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