Suspect’s Baptist church describes attacks as ‘result of a sinful heart’
The Southern Baptist church that counted the suspect in a series of deadly spa shootings as an active member said on Friday that the attacks were “the result of a sinful heart and depraved mind” and that it had begun the process of removing him from its membership.
“We want to be clear that this extreme and wicked act is nothing less than rebellion against our Holy God and His Word,” the statement from Crabapple First Baptist Church, in Milton, Ga., said. It added, “The shootings were a total repudiation of our faith and practice, and such actions are completely unacceptable and contrary to the gospel.”
The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, was charged this week with eight counts of murder in the attacks on three massage parlors in and around Atlanta. A former roommate has described a “religious mania” that marked Mr. Long’s life in the years before the shooting spree. And the police have said that Mr. Long, 21, told them he had a sexual addiction, and that the shootings were an attempt to eliminate temptation.
Crabapple strictly prohibits sex outside of marriage, and Mr. Long had previously checked himself into a Christian rehab clinic to combat what he perceived as an addiction.
The church said that it was cooperating with law enforcement and that it deeply regretted “the fear and pain Asian Americans are experiencing as a result of Aaron’s inexcusable actions.” Among the eight shooting victims were six women of Asian descent.
The church statement came amid several developments in the case on Friday, including the official identification of the four women who were killed in two Atlanta spas. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Asian American leaders in Atlanta, and community members held a vigil in memory of the shooting victims.
Newly revealed police records also showed that, between 2011 and 2014, Atlanta officers had arrested at least 11 people and charged them with prostitution-related offenses at one of those businesses.
The prostitution arrests were made after massage therapists at the business, Gold Spa in northeastern Atlanta, offered to perform sexual acts on undercover officers for money, Police Department records show. The officers were following up on anonymous tips, the department said.
The records, provided in response to a request from The New York Times, contradict what Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta said at a news conference this week: “As far as we know in Atlanta, these are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar, not on the radar of APD.”
Elise Durham, a spokeswoman for the mayor, who took office in 2018, stressed that the mayor’s comment came just a day after the killings. “‘As far as we know’ is the operative piece of that sentence. Obviously this was less than 24 hours after the incident,” Ms. Durham said.
“The shootings were a total repudiation of our faith and practice, and such actions are completely unacceptable and contrary to the gospel.” — Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga.