Eight Killed in Three Separate Shootings at Spas Around Atlanta; One Suspect in Custody

Reed RichardsonMar 16th, 2021, 9:59 pm
 

Eight people have been killed after three separate shootings targeted spas or massage parlors in and around the Atlanta area on Tuesday evening.

Per CNN breaking news reporting, the investigation is ongoing and at least one suspect is already in custody after a shooting killed four at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia, which is about 45 minutes northwest of Atlanta. Additional shootings at Gold Massage Spa and Aroma Therapy Spa were in Atlanta.

“A tragedy unfolding in Georgia,” CNN host Chris Cuomo said during a breaking news report on Tuesday night. “At least eight people dead in a series of shootings. At the same kinds of locations, spas in and around Atlanta, Georgia. At least four of the dead are Asian women. We do not know the race of gender of the others or the relationship of those people to this crime. The questions are obvious — were these coincidence?”

Cuomo’s question is particularly fraught in light of the fact that Anti-Asian hate crimes spiked 150% between 2019 and 2020, according to an analysis by Cal State-San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. And since then, continued, violent attacks on Asian-Americans has sparked public outrage and even prompted President Joe Biden to call it out during his first White House address.

CNN correspondent Ryan Young, reporting from Atlanta, added more details about the ongoing investigation.

“One of the reasons we haven’t found out the race and ages of the first shooting scenes is they haven’t told all the family members yet, the folks who have died. The loved ones have been lost,” Young explained. “We know the suspect was caught in Crisp County, which is about two hours away from here. There was a small vehicle pursuit, I’m being told by sources we were able to talk to, and they were able to capture him. Not sure if they have been able to speak with him to figure out what a motive is. We have not been able to connect him for sure to this scene at all, but I can tell you law enforcement in the metro Atlanta area was working with the theory they were looking for that man.”

Young added that one suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, from Woodstock, Georgia, was captured about two hours south of Atlanta.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

UPDATE, 10:45 p.m., 3/16/21: Reuters’ Vincent Lee reported that local investigators are now “very confident” that Long was the alleged shooter at all three locations. He also provided more information about the other four victims not previously identified, two of which were Asian women, one of which was a white man, and the other a white woman.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

Tags: