A wave of shootings in spas swept across the United States: eight people died

Eight people, including six women from Asia, were shot dead in a series of attacks on three spas in the US state of Georgia. A 21-year-old suspect in all three attacks has been detained. Writes about it Air force.

Photo: Shutterstock

Police said four people were killed at a salon in Atlanta's northern suburbs and four more at two spas in the city.

South Korea confirmed that four of the dead were of Korean descent.

According to officials, a 21-year-old man has been detained and is considered a suspect in all three attacks.

The first attack took place around 17:00 local time. A sheriff's office spokesman said two victims died at the scene and two others died at the hospital. He confirmed that two women of Asian descent were killed, along with another white woman and a white man (a Hispanic man was also wounded). This happened, as specified Reutersat Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta.

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In Atlanta, the state capital, police who responded to an "ongoing robbery" announcement shortly before 18:00 pm arrived at the Gold Spa beauty salon and found three women killed, police chief Rodney Bryant told reporters.

During the investigation, Bryant said officers were called to a separate aromatherapy spa across the street, where another woman was found dead after a gunshot wound.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Guardian News

Police have officially stated that the four victims in Atlanta were Asian women.

Investigators reviewing the CCTV footage then released images of the suspect outside one of the spas. After they began to search for Robert Aaron Long from Woodstock, Georgia, he was soon detained about 240 km south of Atlanta.

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Hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased in recent months. A certain role in this was played by baseless claims that they are responsible for the spread of Covid-19.

Last week, US President Joe Biden condemned brutal hate crimes against Asian Americans.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Guardian News

Police believe the suspect fired shots in all three spas. The authorities say it is too early to judge whether the victims were targeted because of their race or ethnicity.

Although authorities did not name a possible motive for the attack, the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit has announced the deployment of additional patrols to Asian communities as a precautionary measure.

The advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate said the shootings of Asian American women in Atlanta are an "unspeakable tragedy" primarily for the victims' families, but also for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, which "suffers high levels of racial discrimination." .

Atlanta police said they are stepping up their patrolling of businesses similar to those attacked.

Intimacy, not racism

Police said the shooting suspect had sexual, not racist, motives. Robert Aaron Long, who shot eight people in massage parlors in Atlanta, appeared to be a frequent visitor to these establishments, writes Independent.

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said interviews with the subject indicated that his shooting may not have been racially motivated, but related to sexual issues.

“The suspect was questioned. It turns out he has some problems, potentially a sex addiction. He may have been to some of these places in the past,” Reynolds said.

Police said the shooter apparently wanted to "eliminate temptation" by removing the massage parlors that served as an outlet for his addiction.

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said the officers "simply don't yet" have any potential racial motivators to tie to the shooting.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said the shooter was on his way to Florida to attack porn-related establishments when he was intercepted by police.

Police said it was unclear if the shooting was motivated by religious beliefs. However, The Daily Beast reported that the shooter appeared on video from Crabapple First Baptist Church discussing the events leading up to his Christian baptism.

The video has since been removed.

A classmate of the suspect, speaking anonymously, stated that "he was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor" and that he "was a big believer in religion." The Instagram headline from the account, which has since been deactivated, also indicated that religion and weapons were extremely important to the shooter.

“Pizza, guns, drums, music, family and God. That pretty much sums up my life. It’s a pretty good life,” the caption read.

The shooter was identified after police shared surveillance footage of attacks on their social media accounts, Reynolds said. The shooter's parents worked with the police to confirm his identity.

When asked if massage parlors offered illegal sex, Bottoms said the city was not going to blame the victims and that officials had no indication that the businesses were operating illegally.

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