“I’m hiding now,” the woman said. “Please come.”
Robert Long, 21, was arrested in connection with the attacks 150 km south of the city, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta, said he was on his way to Florida to possibly take the victims’ lives.
The suspect told police he believed he had sex addiction and that he saw the spas “a temptation … that he wants to eliminate,” the sheriff said. Jay Baker, in Cherokee County, said at the news conference.
However, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to know a motive behind the devastating violence.
“When we heard about this last night, we were horrified and the feeling I had was a crime related to AAPI hatred. As we learned that the details of the event unfolded, I still believe it “This is a racially motivated crime,” Georgia State Representative Be Nguyen told CNN on Wednesday. “In this particular case, where the victims were Asian women, we see the intersections of racism, xenophobia and gender-based violence. “
“While we are relieved that the suspect was quickly apprehended, we are certainly not at peace, as this attack still indicates an increasing threat that many in the Asian American community feel today,” said Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said. said in a statement on Wednesday.
Eight people died over 30 miles
Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, delegates to Young’s Asian Massage between the Georgia cities of Woodstock and Acworth were called after reports of a shooting, the Cherokee County sheriff said.
Baker said four people were killed – two Asians and two Whites – and one person injured. Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two died at a hospital.
Killed was Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels (54) of Atlanta; Xiaojie Yan (49) of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng (44).
The injured survivor was Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, authorities said.
About an hour later and 30 miles away, Atlanta police responded to what was described as a robbery at the Gold Massage Spa on Piedmont Road in Atlanta. Police said they found three people dead.
While they were there, police again received a call of shots across the street at the Aroma Therapy Spa, where they found one person dead, Bryant said.
The names of the four victims have not yet been released by authorities.
Investigators found surveillance video of a suspect near the Cherokee County scene and posted images on social media.
Long’s family saw the images, contacted authorities and helped identify him, Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Wednesday.
“(The family members) are very upset and they were very helpful with this fear,” Reynolds said.
Investigators were able to locate Long’s phone, and Reynolds reached out to the sheriff in Crisp County, Georgia, to let him know that Long was apparently heading in that direction, the Cherokee County sheriff said Wednesday.
‘It would be appropriate’ if the suspect is charged with a hate crime, says mayor
At about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the highway patrol about 150 miles south of Atlanta was alerted that a suspect in the Cherokee County shooting was on its way, Reynolds said in a video on the Facebook page of the Sheriff’s Department of Crisp County.
After Long’s vehicle was spotted, a chase ensued on Interstate 75 and a state troop carried out a maneuver that sent the SUV out of control, authorities said.
According to Baker, a Sheriff of Cherokee County, police confiscated a 9-millimeter rifle from his vehicle.
Video evidence – including the version of Long’s vehicle in the vicinity of the shooting in Atlanta – indicates that Long is responsible for the murders in Atlanta, police there said.
Long accepted the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office responsibility for the shootings in Cherokee County and in Atlanta.
One law enforcement source told CNN that the suspect is on a suicide watch and is wearing a vest intended to protect him from self-harm.
According to the sheriff of the country, he is facing four charges of murder and one charge of aggravated assault. More costs are possible.
Bottoms added that she thinks ‘it would be appropriate’ if Long is charged with a hate crime.
“Sex” is a category for hate crime under Georgia’s new legislation. If Long targeted women out of hatred for them or their scapegoat for his own problems, it could possibly be a hate crime. The shooting does not have to be racially motivated to form a hate crime in Georgia.
A law enforcement source told CNN on Wednesday that Long was recently kicked out of the house by his family because of his sexual addiction, which according to the source regularly spent hours watching online pornography.
According to an incident report from the CCSO, an anonymous caller to 911 told the dispatch that Long ‘was kicked out of his parental home last night, adding that he was’ emotional’, the report said.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Amanda Watts, Audrey Ash, Casey Tolan, Nicole Chavez, Artemis Moshtaghian, Raja Razek, Jamiel Lynch, Steve Almasy and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.