(CNN) — As investigators piece together the movements and the motive of the suspect in this week’s deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area spas, fierce debate is underway over whether he should face hate crime charges for the attacks that left eight people dead, including six Asian women.
“It looked like a hate crime to me,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on “Anderson Cooper 360” on Thursday. “This was targeted at Asian spas. Six of the women who were killed were Asian so it’s difficult to see it as anything but that.”
Robert Aaron Long, 21, is being held in connection with Tuesday’s shootings at a massage spa in Georgia’s Cherokee County and two in Atlanta.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to visit Atlanta on Friday, in part to discuss the events with leaders in the state. They are expected to meet with Bottoms, as well as Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders, according to Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen.
Live updates: Asian American communities on edge after shootings
Long claimed responsibility for the shootings, according to sheriff’s office in Cherokee County, where he faces four counts of murder and a charge of aggravated assault. He also has been charged with four counts of murder in Atlanta, police there said.
The suspect, arrested Tuesday night in a traffic stop 150 miles south of Atlanta, told police he believed he had a sex addiction and that he saw the spas as “a temptation … that he wanted to eliminate,” Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said.
But Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant has said it is still too early to know a motive, and Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said the investigation is ongoing and appropriate charges will be brought.
When asked whether Long could face hate crime charges, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Thursday that investigators will follow the evidence.
While FBI Director Christopher Wray said the attacks don’t appear to be racially motivated, advocacy groups have argued that it is too soon to make that determination. And shootings don’t have to be racially motivated to constitute a hate crime in Georgia.
“Sex” is a hate crime category under Georgia law. If Long was targeting women out of hatred for them or scapegoating them for his own problems, it could potentially be a hate crime.
Young had previously frequented the two Atlanta spas, and he bought the gun used in the shooting the day of the incident, Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said Thursday.
The communities and the nation grapple with fear and grief
Flowers have lined the businesses that were the scenes of the violence, but as increased hate impacts Asians and Asian Americans, the emotional toll has been felt across the nation.
Anti-Asian hate crimes have more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
The violence has surged amid racist rhetoric during the pandemic — some popularized by former President Donald Trump. Many Asian Americans have been subjected to vitriol about the “China virus” or the “kung flu” — even those who have never been to Asia.
“Such vicious, unconscionable acts of violence cut at the very core of our country and the values on which it was founded,” former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday. “As we await the findings of a thorough investigation, the critical work to combat the haunting rise of hatred against the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community must intensify with the immediacy this latest tragedy commands.”
Reynolds, the Cherokee County sheriff, visited a candlelight vigil Thursday outside the site of the first shootings — Young’s Asian Spa near the city of Woodstock. Reynolds told reporters he attended to let the Asian American community know that “we have them in our hearts and our prayers and we’re so sorry for the loss of life.”
A vigil was also held Thursday outside of one of the other shooting sites, Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta.
When Biden and Harris visit Atlanta on Friday, community leaders will urge the shootings be considered a hate crime against Asians and not dismissed as the suspect having a “bad day,” Nguyen said.
Biden ordered flags at the White House and other federal grounds to be flown at half-staff Thursday to honor the shooting victims. The US Embassy in Seoul also lowered flags, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Rob Rapson said on Twitter.
“Our hearts go out to the loved ones of those we lost and our nation mourns with you,” he said.
What we know about the victims
Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44, were fatally shot at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County.
Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was also shot but survived.
About 30 miles away, three more people were found dead at Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta. Another was found dead across the street at the Aroma Therapy Spa.
Authorities have not released the names of those four victims.
Three of the Atlanta victims were 52, 64 and 75, according to birth years listed in an Atlanta police incident report.
“We need to make sure we have a true verification of their identities and that we make the proper next of kin notification,” Hampton, the Atlanta deputy police chief, said.
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