8 dead, most of the victims are Asians; Robert Long is in custody

ATLANTA – Eight people, mostly women of Asian descent, were killed Tuesday night in three shootings at Atlanta area health resorts before police arrested a 21-year-old suspected of being the only gunman. The 21-year-old, from Woodstock, Georgia, told authorities that his actions were not racially motivated and that he frequented some of the health resorts where the shootings occurred. A spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Captain Jay Baker, said Long viewed the spas, all listed on a website identical to a prominent illegal massage parlor, as “a temptation he wanted to eliminate.” Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether the shooting was a hate crime. “We haven’t gotten there yet,” Bryant said during a news conference on Wednesday morning, and the killings came amid the recent wave of attacks against Asian Americans that coincided with the spread of the Corona virus across the United States. Here’s what we know: Where did the shooting happen? The first accident occurred at Young’s Asian Massage Parlor at a mall off Interstate 92 near a rural area in Acworth, about 30 miles north of Atlanta. The police got a call around 5 p.m. about the shooting and found five people with gunshot wounds. Two were killed and three were rushed to a nearby hospital where two others died. Baker said the fifth person was injured but in stable condition on Wednesday, and Cherokee County Police Chief Frank Reynolds said his office immediately released surveillance photos of the suspect and the Long family called the office, believing their son was involved. Street from each other in Atlanta on Piedmont Road, at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa. Visual Timeline of the Attack: What Happened in the Atlanta Resort Shooting More: The Atlanta Resort Shooting: Unlawful Comments Flying Red Flags Targeting Vulnerable Women Shooter In a statement, a video clip placed the car of the suspect in the Cherokee County shooting in the same The area where the shootings occurred is in northeastern Atlanta, and authorities called the Crisp County Police Office, anticipating where the suspect might go. Sheriff officials have stopped there along with the Georgia State Patrol for a long time around 8 p.m., and all three of the spas are listed on Rubmaps.ch, a sex review site that allows users to search and review illegal massage parlors. The site is the most popular of its kind, as buyers who call themselves “amateurs” or “sex-seeking merchants” go to find and share information, according to a study by Polaris, the nonprofit group that runs a national human trafficking hotline. Aromatherapy Spa and Gold Spa, both in Atlanta, have around 100 reviews, many of which are recent. The Gold Spa review on March 9 indicated that it was a “full service”, as did a similar review from five days earlier. Young’s Asian Massage in Ockworth, Georgia has 39 reviews on Rubmaps, the most recent of which was published in February. Seven women and a man were killed in the series of attacks, most of them of Asian descent. In Cherokee County, the victims were Dilina Ashley Yuan, 33, from Aquworth. Paul Andre Michaels, 54, from Atlanta; Xiaojian Yan, 49, from Kennesaw; Wadoyo Feng, 44. A 30-year-old Hispanic man was injured. Police said all four victims in the Atlanta shooting incident were Asian women, and the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that its diplomats in Atlanta confirmed that 4 of the women were of Korean descent: Michaels’ younger brother, John Michaels, 52, said he believed That his brother was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. He said they grew up with a total of nine Detriot siblings, riding dirt bikes and spending their summer weekends at a lake and getting in trouble together. Both served in the US Army at the same time and his brother served as an infantry soldier in the late 1980s. John said, “I am the closest in age, so we were like twins.” “We did everything together while growing up.” John said Paul Michaels owns an alarm company in Atlanta, where he and wife Bonnie lived 26 years. “He was just a very hard-working Republican, and a staunch supporter of Trump,” added John. Even in his grief, John insisted on sending a message to the alleged killer: “Although this is a tragedy, I forgive it. The man as well as Jesus Christ… I cannot hate him for it. I pray for his repentance.” Who is the suspect. Robert Long? Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, was detained in Crisp County in said Baker Tuesday night, about 150 miles south of Atlanta. Wednesday morning, Long was handed over to the custody of the Cherokee County Sheriff, Haley Little, a spokesperson for the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office, told USA TODAY. Baker said that a 9mm firearm was recovered from Long’s car. Authorities formally charged Long with eight counts of murder on Wednesday in all three shootings. Four of the charges against Long relate to shootings in two massage parlors in Atlanta. The other four are related to the shooting at a Cherokee County massage parlor, and during an interview with Atlanta Police, Cherokee County Sheriffs and FBI officials said his actions were not racially motivated, according to Reynolds. Hate crime, which is a specific charge that the authorities must prove that a crime was committed on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. ”He seems to have a problem, which he considers a sex addiction, and believes that these sites are something that allows him to go to These places, and it is a temptation for him to want to eliminate it, ”Baker said. He was a long time in rehab for his sex addiction and was feeling guilty about his sexual impulses, according to the two people who lived. Baker said he had long believed there was “some kind of porn industry” in Florida that he intended to confront and that he was on his way to the state when he was arrested. However, Lance Bottoms said the Atlanta resorts were not on the police radar, as they long ago purchased a firearm on Tuesday – the day of the attacks – from Big Woods Goods, a Cherokee County good sporting story. Matt Kilgo, a shop attorney, said his clients “are cooperating fully” with the police. “Everything they have will be handed over,” said Kilgo. Shannon Gott, owner of Backwoods Bowstrings, a hunting accessories store north of Atlanta, said Long used to shop there once a year for stocks, and they posted this Long this picture last year on the store’s web gallery after he “harvested an animal” during deer season “Aside from that, I don’t know a thing about this idiot,” said Gott, noting that the store was posting pictures of many of its customers. He added that he would eliminate the exhibition, and expressed sympathy with friends and families of the dead, and the authorities said that the only police report recorded in the Cherokee sheriff’s office referring to Long was from 2019 when he was 19 years old at the time. He ran away with his girlfriend and reported his missing parents. The report stated that “their son sent them a text message stating that he will not return to the house and want a new start.” Authorities noted in a 2019 report that his parents said that Long “had no suicidal tendencies, did not take any medication, and did not suffer from mental illness”. A former classmate said that Long was quiet in school, never staying. “He’s always been very conservative and quiet most of the time,” said Emily Voigt, who attended elementary, middle and high schools with Long. “He really was never seen before and many of us (who went to school with him) never got the opportunity to get to know him more deeply because he was so shy.” Long and his father attended church most Sundays, praying during the week and going on mission trips at Crabbable First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, Brett Cottrell, a former youth minister, told the Washington Post. Church elders said in a statement that they were “sad” when they learned of the shooting on Tuesday and that they were “sad for all those involved.” How did attacks against Asian Americans rise during COVID-19? Georgia State Rep. P. Nguyen said the shooting appeared to be taking place at “the intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia.” Vice President Kamala Harris, the first African-American woman and an American from South Asia to be elected vice president, described the incident as “tragic.” “The investigation is continuing, we don’t know yet, we’re still unclear about the motive. But I want to tell our Asian American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened, traumatized and angered all people,” said AAPI Hate Group, a group that tracks incidents of discrimination and hatred, said Foreigners against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, it found nearly 3,800 incidents of hate, discrimination, or attacks on Asian Americans from March 2020 through February 2021. The group said that Assi was blamed on Americans for the epidemic and linked the attacks with racist rhetoric from politicians, Including former President Donald Trump, Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans During COVID: Attacks on Asian Americans highlight a rise in hate incidents amid COVID-19. Georgia during the same time period. “The shooting of so many Asian American women today in Atlanta is an untold tragedy – for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the Asian American community, which has been reeling from high levels of the attacks,” the group said in a statement late Tuesday. Racism over the past year. ”White House Press Secretary Jane Psaki said that President Joe Biden has been briefed of the“ horrific shootings ”and that administration officials are in contact with the mayor’s office. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently in South Korea to meet with the Secretary of State. Chung Ewe Young gave Lings’ speech Wednesday. “We are terrified of this violence that has no place in America or anywhere. A crime against any society is a crime against us all. ”Contribution: Dennis Wagner, Irene Mansfield, Kara Kelly, Gary Estwick, Jordan Culver, Kevin Johnson, Will Carles and Nicholas Wu, USA Today; The Associated Press