8 killed in shootings at Atlanta-area spas

At least eight people were found dead at three different spas in the Atlanta area Tuesday.

Police say video evidence led them to believe one suspect, Robert Aaron Long, was responsible for all three shootings. He was arrested Tuesday night about 150 miles south of Atlanta.

Here’s what we know so far:

About the shootings: The first shooting happened shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday at Young’s Asian Massage near Woodstock, Georgia, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta. That shooting left four dead. One person was also wounded, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said. About an hour later, three people were found dead at the Gold Massage Spa on Piedmont Road in Atlanta, Police Chief Rodney Bryant said. One person was also found dead at the Aroma Therapy Spa, directly across the street.

The victims: Of those who died, six were Asian and two were White, Cherokee County sheriff’s officials said in a joint news conference with Atlanta police on Wednesday. All six Asian victims were women, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier, citing authorities.

The four killed in the shooting near Woodstock were Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44.

The injured survivor was Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, authorities said.

Police didn’t immediately release the names of the four people killed at the two Atlanta spas. Four of those killed were of Korean ethnicity, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry, which said it was in contact with its consulate in Atlanta.

The arrest: Cherokee County investigators found surveillance video of a suspect near the first scene and published it on social media. Long’s family saw the image and helped authorities identify him, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Wednesday.

Investigators tracked Long’s phone, and Reynolds reached out to authorities in Crisp County, well to the south, to let them know he appeared to be heading in that direction, Reynolds said. Long’s vehicle was spotted, a chase ensued on Interstate 75 in Crisp County, and a state trooper performed a maneuver that sent the SUV out of control, authorities said. Police arrested Long and confiscated a 9 mm gun from his vehicle, Cherokee County authorities said.

The suspect’s intentions: Preliminary information indicates the shootings could relate to the suspect’s claim of a potential sex addiction, Cherokee County authorities said Wednesday. Long told investigators he saw the spas as a temptation that he wanted to eliminate, they said. Still, it was too early to know a motive, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said at a joint news conference with Cherokee County sheriff’s officials.

Long has claimed responsibility for the shootings in Cherokee County and in Atlanta, the Cherokee County sheriff’s office said. Long told investigators the killings were not racially motivated, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He was being held Wednesday in Cherokee County on four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault, the sheriff’s office said. He is also facing four counts of murder in Atlanta, according to city police.

He was headed to Florida: Before he was stopped, Long was headed to Florida “perhaps to carry out additional shootings,” Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor, said Wednesday, citing investigators. “It’s very likely there would have been more victims,” Bottoms said. Long told investigators he was headed to Florida and was “going to do more acts” there, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday.

Community on edge: Because of the victims’ backgrounds, some public officials had raised fears before Wednesday’s police news conference that ethnicity had come into play, amid rising concerns nationwide about anti-Asian violence during the coronavirus pandemic.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, acknowledging most of the victims were Asian, said Wednesday that “we know (violence against Asian Americans) is an issue that’s happening around the country; it is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it has to stop.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly spelled Xiaojie Tan’s name.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday the man suspected of killing eight people at three Atlanta-area spas should face “the stiffest most appropriate charges.” 

During the interview on the “Situation Room,” Blitzer asked the mayor whether these killings should be prosecuted as hate crimes, noting Georgia’s hate crime law does include victims targeted based on sex.

Bottoms said the city is grateful to law enforcement that the suspected shooter, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, was apprehended quickly and the violence was not carried out to other states. Although the suspect claims the shootings were not racially motivated, Bottoms said it’s difficult to ignore that Asian community has been targeted. 

“This is a man who murdered, eight people in cold blood, so it’s very difficult to believe what he says,” said Bottoms. “It’s difficult to ignore the fact that many of the victims were Asian, all of the victims in Atlanta were Asian, in fact, and that he targeted these Asian massage parlors.”

Bottoms said it is important that people stand in solidarity with the Asian American community at this time. “They are being targeted unfairly and in Atlanta, what we’ve seen the worst has happened,” she said.

The suspect in the spa shootings where eight were killed in metro-Atlanta purchased his gun legally at a local gun store, Big Woods Goods in Holly Springs, Georgia, an attorney for the company confirmed to CNN.

In a brief statement to CNN, Matt Kilgo said the company is fully cooperating with law enforcement and there is no indication that there was anything improper with the transfer yesterday.

The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in Cherokee County and four counts of murder in Fulton County.

Eight people died and one person was injured in the shootings on Tuesday.

Long remains in custody in Cherokee County.

The Atlanta Police Department’s Homicide Unit has charged Robert Long, the 21 year-old accused of killing several people in Georgia, with four counts of murder.

These are in addition to earlier charges from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office that include “four counts of Murder and one count of Aggravated Assault and has no bond,” the CCSO said in a Wednesday statement.

In total, Long faces eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault for the incidents. 

He is currently detained at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center and it is anticipated that he will face a judge tomorrow.

Eight people – including six Asian women – were shot dead at three metro Atlanta spas Tuesday evening.

Police have not yet offered a motive in the shootings saying it’s too early in the investigation to determine if they were a hate crime. 

President Biden has asked domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and White House public engagement director and senior adviser Cedric Richmond to conduct community listening sessions in the wake of the Atlanta-area shooting that left eight people dead, including six Asian women.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the President made the request “so that we can hear from the community and determine how that should impact policies moving forward.” 

Psaki pointed to the memorandum Biden signed in January to combat racism against Asian Americans in the United States. 

“There’s also an ongoing review of domestic violent extremism that is wide-ranging, that is a 100 day review that will take a look at a range of issues and that will also be a longer-term, strategic, comprehensive look at how that impacts our society and this will certainly be a part of that,” Psaki added.

Investigators believe the gunman accused of shooting and killing several people at three different spas in the Atlanta area Tuesday purchased the weapon he used in the attack this week, law enforcement sources tell CNN.  

One of the sources said nothing in suspect Robert Aaron Long’s background would have prevented the purchase.

Long is accused of shooting and killing several people at three different spas in the Atlanta area Tuesday, according to authorities. 

During a Wednesday news conference, Sheriff Frank Reynolds, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said Long “made indicators that he has some issues, potentially, sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past.” 

Reynolds told reporters that the family of Long turned him in to authorities on Tuesday.

A law enforcement source said the suspect was recently kicked out of the house by his family due to his sexual addiction, which, the source said, included frequently spending hours on end watching pornography online.

According to an incident report from CCSO, a 911 caller said the suspect could possibly be his son and “does have a tracker on his phone.” Another anonymous caller to 911 told dispatch the suspect was “kicked out of his parents’ house last night,” adding that he “was emotional,” the incident report says. 

Long, 21, has been charged with, “four counts of Murder and one count of Aggravated Assault and has no bond,” the CCSO said in a Wednesday statement. He is currently detained at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center. He could face separate charges for the shootings he’s suspected of committing in Atlanta, but authorities there have not charged him yet. 

According to two law enforcement sources involved in the investigation, Long attempted to justify his actions when he told police he thought about killing himself, but decided instead to “help” others with sexual addictions by targeting spas.

One of the sources tells CNN, the suspect is on suicide watch and was wearing a vest intended to protect him from self-harm in the mug shot. 

FBI agents from the bureau’s Atlanta field office civil rights team continue to investigate whether race was a factor in the murders, one of the sources said.

After eight people — six of whom were Asian women — were killed in shootings at Atlanta-area spas, Georgia State Rep. Sam Park said it serves as a reminder to “protect the most vulnerable among us.”

Police have not yet offered a motive in the shootings saying it’s too early in the investigation to determine if they were a hate crime. 

Park recommended that people contact their local leaders if they feel unsafe or threatened. 

“Make your voice heard. Reach out to your community members, reach out to elected officials, law enforcement. And raise those concerns so that we can do as much as we can to provide support,” he said. 

First lady Jill Biden addressed shootings in Georgia this afternoon during remarks at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Concord, New Hampshire.

Eight people were killed Tuesday during a shooting spree across three metro Atlanta spas on Tuesday, including six Asian women, officials say.

Local police have yet to definitively offer a motive in the Tuesday spree, but because of many of the victims’ backgrounds, some public officials and organizations have raised concerns that ethnicity came into play.

It comes following an alarming spike in violence directed at the Asian American community in recent months.

Attorney Christopher Chan, advisory chair of the Asian American Action Fund Georgia Chapter, said the Atlanta shootings is of high concern “because it’s such a high-profile event that has occurred against our community.”

Chan told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that Asian communities in Georgia are “in shock” and “outraged” following the fatal shooting rampage that left six Asian women dead.

Chan told Keilar that steps like Congress passing the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act could help “strengthen the reportings around alleged hate crimes against Asian Americans.”

He added, “It would also set into place some Department of Justice procedures as well as coordination among state and local law enforcement as to the language being used to describe Covid-19, particularly getting rid of and correcting descriptions as to how Covid-19 is being described in the news and media.”

Police have yet to report a motive in the attack.

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President Joe Biden said that brutality against Asian Americans is “very, very troubling,” but he would make “no connection” when it comes to the possible motivation of the man accused of killing eight people in Georgia until the investigation is complete.

The President said he was briefed by the attorney general and the director of the FBI on the phone on Tuesday.

“The investigation is ongoing and the question of motivation is still to be determined. But whatever the motivation here, I know Asian Americans are … they are very concerned, because as you know I have been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans for the last couple of months and I think it is very, very troubling,” Biden said before hosting a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Ireland.

While police have not yet offered a motive in the attacks, the shootings follow a spike in violence directed at the Asian American community in recent months.

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CNN went to the home of the grandparents of Georgia shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long in Morristown, Tennessee, on Wednesday. 

Long’s grandfather interrupted the conversation, saying they’d been told not to speak to anyone and gave no further comment. 

Some context: Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds told reporters earlier today that the family of suspected spa shooter Robert Aaron Long turned him into authorities Tuesday. 

Reynolds said he talked to the family and they “were very distraught and they were very helpful in this apprehension,” he said. 

An Asian American justice group has blamed White supremacy and racism as the cause for Tuesday night’s Atlanta shooting and is calling for communities of color to band together to condemn racist violence.

In a statement released Wednesday, Stephanie Cho, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said:

“We are heartbroken by these acts of violence. Six Asian women lost their lives. Now is the time to hold the victims and their families in our hearts and in our light. We’re calling on our allies across communities of color to stand with us in grief and solidarity against racist violence in all its forms. When our most vulnerable community members are targeted, we all need to band together.”

Phi Nguyen, litigation director at the organization, said: “That the Asian women murdered yesterday were working highly vulnerable jobs during an ongoing pandemic speaks directly to the compounding impacts of sexism, structural violence, and white supremacy.”

The statement called for local and state government to “provide robust in-language interpretation and translation for crisis intervention resources, including support for mental health and immigration services. It is time for Georgia to invest in transformative justice that begins with cross racial dialogue and community-building.”

Officials in Cherokee County have released names of the five victims who were shot during Tuesday shooting at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia.

According to a statement from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, four victims were killed at that location:

One victim was injured and is in stable condition:

On Tuesday, eight people were found dead at three different massage parlors in the Atlanta area on Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.

The names of the four victims killed in Atlanta have not been released.  

The suspect in the shootings Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been charged with, “four counts of Murder and one count of Aggravated Assault and has no bond,” the CCSO statement says. He is currently detained at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly spelled Xiaojie Tan’s name. 

Flowers are seen at the entrance of Gold Spa in Atlanta on March 17.

Eight people – including six Asian women – were shot dead at three metro Atlanta spas. One suspect is in custody, but authorities say there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Here’s what we still don’t know about the attacks:

What’s next:

Rep. Judy Chu speaks during a press conferencein 2019.

Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, joined Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries today on the Georgia shootings that left eight people dead in the Atlanta area. 

The term “API” is used to refer to both Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans within the United States.

Eight people were shot dead at three metro Atlanta spas on Tuesday. Six were Asian women, officials said. Police have not yet offered a motive in the bloody attacks, but because of many of the victims’ backgrounds, some public officials and organizations have raised concerns that ethnicity came into play. It comes amid an alarming spike in violence directed at the Asian American community in recent months.

Jeffries echoed her statement, saying he “would encourage members of Congress who continue to use that type of hateful rhetoric, cut it out, because you also have blood on your hands.”

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported eight Asian people were killed in the shootings. Eight people, including six Asian women and two White people, were killed.

Vice President Kamala Harris offered support and solidarity with the Asian American community after eight people were killed at metro Atlanta spas on Tuesday.

“It speaks to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country and what we must do to never tolerate it and to always speak out against it,” said Harris, the first South Asian, Black and female vice president.

Harris noted that the investigation is still ongoing. Officials said it is too early to determine whether or not the shootings are being considered a hate crime. Six of the eight people killed were Asian women, according to officials.

Harris said she and President Biden extend their prayers to the families of those killed.

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The only surviving victim of Tuesday’s shootings in Atlanta is in stable condition, according to Captain Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. 

During a Wednesday briefing, Baker said the victim is in stable condition at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia. 

Baker said in Cherokee County, there were five victims total. Four were killed and one survived.  

On Tuesday, eight people were found dead – six of them Asian women – at three different massage parlors in the Atlanta area, according to law enforcement officials.

Police have not yet offered a motive in the shootings, but confirmed a suspect is in custody. The investigation is at an early stage.

Barack Obama speaks in 2019.

Former President Barack Obama reacted to news of Tuesday night’s shootings in Atlanta, tweeting a statement about anti-Asian violence and gun control.

“Yesterday’s shootings are another tragic reminder that we have far more work to do to put in place commonsense gun safety laws and root out the pervasive patterns of hatred and violence in our society,” he added.

The shootings at spas in Georgia left eight people dead – six of them Asian women – in three separate incidents.

Remember: Police have not yet offered a motive in the shootings but confirmed a suspect is in custody and the investigation is ongoing.

According to Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, most of the victims in Tuesday’s shooting in Georgia were Asian, and two were White. 

In total, eight people were killed in Atlanta and Cherokee County.

“Just to be clear, our victims – I know that, obviously, Atlanta, all their victims were Asian – two of our victims were white,” Baker said during a Wednesday briefing. 

“We had two Asians and two Whites that were killed at our location,” he explained. 

Earlier in the briefing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said regardless of the motivation of this crime:

Officials stressed that it is still early in the investigation and nothing can be ruled out at this point.

Police have not yet offered a motive in the shootings.

Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff Frank Reynolds speaks on March 17.

Officials today gave a chronological order of events that unfolded on Tuesday night in the Atlanta area, where eight people – including six Asian women – were shot dead at three metro Atlanta spas. One suspect is in custody, authorities said.

Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff Frank Reynolds says his department got a call about a shooting at about 4:55 p.m. ET.

At 5:47 p.m. ET,  police responded to a robbery call at 1916 Piedmont Road, where they found three women shot. While investigating that incident, they received another call about an incident at 1907 Piedmont Road, where they found another women shot, another law enforcement official said.

“Both locations were massage parlors. At that time, we recognized that we had had information previously put out by Cherokee County that they had a similar incident in their jurisdiction,” he said.

When police put the information about the suspect on social media, the suspect’s family members got in touch.

“Shortly thereafter, we were contacted by members of a family, indicating that that may be their son. So we met with them. I was there speaking with the family. They’re very distraught and they were very helpful in this apprehension,” he added.

Law enforcement was then able to track the suspect’s phone, anticipating his movements. Crisp County police intercepted him in coordination with state patrol.

“They initiated a traffic stop and then immediately pitted the vehicle. After the vehicle was pitted, the suspect was taken into custody without further incident and transported to the Crisp County jail,” a state patrol official said. 

The suspect was interviewed by the Cherokee County police, Atlanta police and the FBI on Tuesday night and remains at Cherokee County adult detention center, Reynolds reported.

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