Eight killed in Atlanta shooting spree
ATLANTA — The killing of eight people Tuesday night who worked at three metro Atlanta massage parlors has come amid a recent wave of attacks against Asian Americans that coincided with the spread of the coronavirus across the United States.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is under heavy criticism for a dramatic rise in violent crime in the city, offered her sympathies on social media: “My prayers are with the families and friends of the victims whose lives were cut short by these shootings,” read her statement posted to Twitter.
In Cherokee County, the victims were Delaina Ashley Yuan, 33, of Acworth; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta, WSB-TV Atlanta reported.
Elcias R. Hernandez Ortiz, 30, was injured. His family told WSB-TV that he was in serious but stable condition.
The names of four other victims have not yet been released.
South Korea’s Foreign
Ministry said Wednesday its diplomats in Atlanta have confirmed from police that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, is suspected in a series of shootings at Young’s Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County that left four dead and one person injured; the Gold Spa in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood that left three women dead; and the Aromatherapy Spa across the street, where one woman was shot to death.
Metro Atlanta police are now saying Long, who was arrested in South Georgia on Tuesday night, was targeting massage parlors and “some type of porn industry,” the fact the shootings took place at local spas, many of whom employ Asians, has brought renewed attention to alleged hate crimes against that demographic.
However, there is still confusion around the motivation behind the attacks. Korean media outlet KBS shared postings from what is believed to be Long’s Facebook page in which he claims COVID-19 is part of a Chinese plot for “global domination.” The Facebook account has not been
verified.
Atlanta-based Koreanlanguage newspapers initially reported that the suspect shouted comments indicating he was targeting Asian Americans, based on an interview with a friend of a survivor of the Gold Spa shooting. However, Korean news outlet Chosun Ilbo’s Atlanta bureau later reported that police say he made no racist remarks.
Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Wednesday that Long may have a sexual addiction and frequented the types of businesses he allegedly targeted.
“During his interview, he gave no indicators that this was racially motivated,” Reynolds said. “We asked him that specifically and the answer was no.”
Authorities believe that
Long was headed to Florida, “perhaps to carry out additional shootings,” when he was arrested, Bottoms said.
“This could have been significantly worse,” she told CBS Miami on Wednesday. “It’s very likely there would have been more victims.”
Huge metropolitan areas such as New York City, Seattle and Houston are on alert regarding possible future crimes against Asian-American populations.
A rash of crimes victimizing elderly Asian Americans in the past two months has renewed outcry for more attention from politicians and the media.
On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on legislation allocating $1.4 million to Stop AAPI Hate and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. The funding will go toward community resources and further tracking of anti-Asian hate incidents.
Local officials and citizens have also taken notice. Initiatives like increased police presence, volunteer patrols and special crime hotlines are coming to fruition. Bigname brands like the Golden State Warriors and Apple, based in the Bay Area, have promised to donate to the cause.
More than 3,000 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Asian American Pacific Islanders, and its partner advocacy groups, since mid-March 2020. While the encounters don’t often rise to the legal definition of a hate crime, police in several major cities still saw an uptick in Asian-targeted hate crimes between 2019 and 2020, according to data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism,
California State University, San Bernardino.
New York City went from three incidents to 27, Los Angeles from seven to 15, and Denver had three incidents in 2020 — the first reported there in six years.
“We cannot ignore the fact that anti-Asian hate and violence disproportionately impacts women,” Choimorrow said. “More than 68% of reported incidents of anti-Asian harassment and violence have been from women. Even before the pandemic and the racist scapegoating that came in its wake, AAPI women routinely experienced racialized misogyny. Now, our community, and particularly women, elders, and workers with low-wage jobs, are bearing the brunt of continued vilification.”