ASIAN WOMEN AMONG EIGHT KILLED IN ATLANTA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS

Wed 17 March 2021:

Eight people were killed and two others injured in massage parlor shootings in the US state of Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) daily reported.

A series of shootings occurred Tuesday in massage parlors around the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Three people were killed and two others injured in the first incident in Cherokee County near Acworth, according to officials.

Four more people were killed less than an hour later at two other massage parlors on Piedmont Road.

The shootings came with many Asian Americans already on edge following a recent spike in hate crimes against the community and triggered immediate fears that Asian-run businesses may have been deliberately singled out.

Authorities have identified Robert Aaron Long as a suspect in all three shootings.

According to the Cherokee Country sheriff’s office, Robert Aaron Long, 21, was first identified as the suspect in the shooting at Young’s Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County that left four people dead and one injured. Long, captured Tuesday night some 150 miles south of Atlanta, was also a suspect in two other shootings at massage parlors in northeast Atlanta that left four more people dead.

Based on the pattern of surveillance video from the shooting scenes, Atlanta police spokesman Sergeant John Chafee told the AFP news agency: “It is extremely likely our suspect is the same as Cherokee County’s, who is in custody.”

“We are working closely with them to confirm with certainty our cases are related,” he added.

Long was taken into custody after a “brief pursuit” about 240 kilometres (150 miles) from Atlanta, according to a statement by the Georgia Department of Safety on Facebook.

Describing the scene in northeast Atlanta, the city police department said: “Upon arrival, officers located three females deceased inside the location from apparent gunshot wounds.”

While on the scene, officers were advised of shots fired across the street, where they found a fourth female victim.

The shootings come as reports of attacks against Asian-Americans, primarily elders, have spiked in recent months – heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, activists believe, by talk of the “Chinese virus” by former President Donald Trump and others.

While racial motivation can be hard to establish, a study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino found that reported anti-Asian hate crimes nearly tripled from 49 to 122 cases last year across 16 big US cities including New York and Los Angeles – even as overall hate crime fell seven percent.

Georgia is home to nearly 500,000 Asian residents, or just over four percent of its population, according to the Asian American Advocacy Fund.

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