Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Ga. Officials say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, has been captured hours after multiple people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.
Mike Stewart / AP Photo
Mike Stewart / AP Photo
Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Ga. Officials say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, has been captured hours after multiple people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.
This is a developing story. Some things reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
(Washington) — Robert Aaron Long, the suspected gunman in three attacks that killed eight people at Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday, has been charged with murder and assault.
Cherokee County officials announced on Wednesday afternoon that Long, 21, was charged with four counts of murder and one count of assault in the shootings involving three women and two men at Young’s Asian Spa. He has also been charged with murder in Atlanta, where four other women were killed.
Police said the suspect has confessed to the crime.
Six women of Asian descent are among the dead, raising suspicions of a hate crime.
Long, 21, “may have frequented some of these places in the past,” Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said.
Long was arrested within hours of the attacks on the three spas, after police tracked his vehicle on the interstate in south Georgia. He is now charged with murder and assault and is being held without bond.
As of early Wednesday afternoon, only half of the victims had been publicly identified.
The sheriff’s office in Cherokee County identified the victims who were killed there as:
In addition, Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth was injured, the agency says. His condition has been listed as stable.
Atlanta police say they’re not yet publicly naming the victims from the two shootings there; a representative says the department is still working to identify them.
Elijah Nouvelage / AFP via Getty Images
Law enforcement personnel are seen outside a massage parlor where a person was shot and killed on March 16, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia. – Eight people were killed in shootings at three different spas in the US state of Georgia on March 16 and a 21-year-old male suspect was in custody, police and local media reported, though it was unclear if the attacks were related.
The shootings at three spas took place against a backdrop of discrimination and violence against Asian Americans that has increased sharply in the past year.
Responding to questions of whether the shootings might represent a hate crime, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said, “We are still early in this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at this moment.”
“This was a tragic day, with many victims,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said.
The shocking violence could have been worse, Lance Bottoms said, noting that when he was arrested, Long was heading to Florida, where he seemed to be planning to carry out other, similar attacks.
Reynolds said his county is mostly a bedroom community, which had just one murder in the past year. “We don’t have a lot of crime in that area,” he added.
Long was initially identified through video surveillance footage from one of the crime scenes, the sheriff said. After his agency posted images to social media, Long’s parents got in touch to say they believed it was their son in the pictures.
“They’re very distraught, and they were very helpful in this apprehension,” Reynolds said.
Because of the family’s tip, police were able to track Long’s cellphone, which helped them narrow down his movements after the attacks.
Cherokee County Sheriff's Office
Surveillance camera footage released by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office appears to show the suspected gunman outside of Young’s Asian Massage — one of three spas where people were killed Tuesday.
The group Stop AAPI Hate says it has received nearly 3,800 reports since the COVID-19 pandemic began last March. In the aftermath of the Atlanta attacks, officials in cities such as New York and Seattle said they would boost law enforcement’s presence in Asian American communities.
On Wednesday, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta issued a statement saying that although details are still emerging, the broader context of racial tension in the U.S. cannot be ignored.
“While anti-Asian violence is woven throughout our nation’s history, the Trump administration’s relentless scapegoating of Asians for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased” those incidents, said the advocacy group, which is an affiliate of a national organization.
“We’re calling on our allies across communities of color to stand with us in grief and solidarity against racist violence in all its forms,” said Stephanie Cho, the Atlanta group’s executive director.
The first attack targeted Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth in Cherokee County northwest of Atlanta, where the sheriff’s office said four people died and at least one other person was injured.
“The victims were two Asian women, a white woman and a white man,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing Baker. A fifth victim, a Hispanic man, was taken to the hospital for his injuries.
Surveillance footage from a neighboring business appeared to show Long’s Hyundai Tucson SUV entering the massage parlor’s strip-mall parking lot around 4:50 p.m. ET. Long, 21, is from Woodstock, Ga., which is in Cherokee County.
The second and third attacks came about one hour later on Piedmont Road in northeast Atlanta. Women who called emergency dispatchers to ask for help at the pair of Atlanta spas urged police to come quickly, according to 911 audio that was released on Wednesday.
The first call came from a woman at Gold Spa who said a man had come in with a gun. The dispatcher asked where the man was.
“I don’t know, I’m hiding right now,” the woman replied.
Officers arrived at the spa less than two minutes after the dispatch call went out, according to police. They found three women dead from gunshot wounds inside.
The second 911 call came in about nine minutes later, from a woman at the Aromatherapy Spa almost directly across the street. Police were dispatched on a report of gunshots fired and arrived two minutes later. When they entered the business, they found that a fourth woman had been killed.
Courtesy of Cherokee County Sheriff's Office via AP Photo
The photo released by the sheriff’s office of Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the massage parlor shootings in Georgia. Four women were killed at a massage parlor in Cherokee County, and four more women at two other businesses in the city of Atlanta Tuesday.
From Atlanta, the suspected gunman fled to the south, as police spread the alarm to be on the lookout for his vehicle. As he drove south on Interstate 75, the authorities set a trap for him.
Around 8 p.m., Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said, his agency got word “that a murder suspect out of north Georgia was getting close to entering our county.”
Some 30 minutes later, Georgia State Patrol troopers performed a maneuver on Long’s SUV that caused it to spin out of control, Hancock said. The suspect was taken into custody without incident and taken to the county jail, he said. Long was later transferred back to Cherokee County.
“A 9mm firearm was recovered during the traffic stop” of Long’s vehicle, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said.
The FBI is assisting both Cherokee County and Atlanta police in handling the case, Kevin Rowson, a spokesman for FBI’s Atlanta office, told NPR.
Long is expected to be arraigned Thursday morning.
“Yesterday was a tragic day across our state,” Bottoms said. The mayor added that she has been in touch with the White House about the case and that President Biden offered federal assistance in dealing with the crime.
Biden spoke about the killings on Wednesday, saying he was briefed on a phone call with Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Whatever the motivation here, I know that Asian Americans are very concerned,” Biden said in the Oval Office, noting a rise in violence targeting that community within the United States.
“But I am making no connection at this moment to the motivation of the killer,” the president added. “I’m waiting for an answer, as the investigation proceeds, from the FBI and from the Justice Department.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he and first lady Marty Kemp “are heartbroken and disgusted by the heinous shootings that took place last night. We continue to pray for the families and loved ones of the victims.”
“These horrific crimes have no place in Georgia,” he added.
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