GA Police Spox Who Said Atlanta Shooting Suspect Had ‘Bad Day’ Reportedly Posted Image Calling Covid an ‘Imported Virus from Chy-na’

Photo credit: Megan Varner / Getty Images – Facebook

A Georgia sheriff’s spokesperson — whose tone deaf statement appeared to downplay the gruesome actions of an alleged Atlanta shooting suspect accused of killing eight and wounding another — had previously posted an image to Facebook that played up nativist fears about Covid-19.

According to a BuzzFeed report, Cherokee County Capt. Jay Baker shared a picture of several piles of T-shirts last April that featured a biohazard sign above a mock Corona beer logo reading “Covid 19 Imported Virus from Chy-na.” In the caption of the post, which has since been deleted after BuzzFeed inquired about it, Baker reportedly wrote “Love my shirt [name redacted by BuzzFeed] ! Get yours while they last.”

Baker, who is the sheriff’s department’s director of communications & community relations, spoke to the press earlier on Wednesday about the 21-year-old suspect who has been arrested and charged with perpetrating the triple shooting that left six Asian-American women dead. The massacre, which targeted spas and massage parlors that typically employ Asian-American women, prompted public concerns that the tragedy was yet another example of xenophobic violence and hate crimes against the AAPI community, which have spiked in response to fear-mongering over the Covid virus originating in Wuhan, China.

But Baker’s background briefing instantly ignited a backlash for his comments after initial interviews with the suspect. Baker said that the suspect was “fed up, at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.”