Man confesses to spa rampage
♦ With eight dead and one wounded, Robert Aaron Long is blaming “sex addiction.”
CHEROKEE — Woodstock resident Robert Aaron Long, 21, purchased a gun Tuesday.
Later that day, he walked into three metro Atlanta spas and opened fire, killing eight people and wounding one, according to police.
He was arrested hours later and, as of Wednesday evening, was facing several charges in Cherokee, including four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, according to sheriff’s office Capt. Jay Baker. Long also faces a slate of charges stemming from the shootings in Atlanta and is being held in Cherokee without bond.
In an interview with investigators, Long confessed to the shootings, officials say. He said the shootings were not motivated by race, although six of the eight people killed Tuesday were Asian women. Rather, “he blames the massage parlors for providing an outlet for his addiction to sex,” according to Baker.
The shootings set off a national uproar, with people saying they were emblematic of a recent spike in violence against Asian Americans. The hashtag #Stopasianhate trended on Twitter Wednesday.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, Cherokee deputies responded to a call of multiple shots fired at Young’s Massage Parlor at 6468 Highway 92, just outside Acworth, Baker said.
When they got there, deputies found two people dead and three others with gunshot wounds. The wounded were transported to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where two of them later died due to the wounds sustained.
About an hour later, Atlanta Police Department officers responded to a call about a “robbery in progress” at the Gold Spa on Piedmont Road. When they arrived, they found three dead women inside.
Another 911 call moments later brought police to the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, where another dead woman was found inside.
Long was eventually arrested in Crisp County while driving south on Interstate 75.
Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office told their counterparts in Crisp County that Long was headed their way, according to a post on the latter’s Facebook page.
Georgia State Patrol and Crisp County Deputies saw Long’s 2007 black Hyundai Tucson around mile marker 101, according to the post. A GSP trooper performed a PIT maneuver around the 93 mile marker to stop Long, who was then arrested without incident and taken to the Crisp County Detention Center. A PIT maneuver, or pursuit intervention technique maneuver, is a tactic by which a pursuing car can force a fleeing car to turn sideways abruptly, causing the driver to lose control and stop.
Long was found with a 9 millimeter handgun, officials said. Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said he believes Long purchased the gun Tuesday, just before the shooting spree.
Matt Kilgo, an attorney for Big Woods Goods in Holly Springs, confirmed Long had purchased a gun at the shop Tuesday.
“What my client would allow me to state is they are fully cooperating with law enforcement,” the attorney said. “There is no indication whatsoever that anything improper occurred during the transfer.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office identified the four people who died in the shooting at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth. They are:
♦ Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth
♦ Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta
♦ Xiaojie tan, 49, of Kennesaw
♦ Daoyou Feng, 44, (unknown address)
Acworth’s Elcias R. Hernandez-ortiz, 30, was injured but was in stable condition as of Wednesday, according to officials.
The four who died include two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, according to Baker. The four women killed in Atlanta were Asian, officials said.
At a news conference Wednesday, officials said Long had told them he had a sex addiction, that businesses such as those he targeted were an outlet for that addiction and that that had precipitated Tuesday’s shootings. They said Long had denied the shootings were motivated by the victims’ race.
Some didn’t buy that explanation, however.
“Funny how he just volunteered that ... to law enforcement,” state Sen. Jen Jordan, D-sandy Springs, wrote on Twitter. “My guess is that he thinks this might help him get out from under the Hate Crimes statute.”
Officials wouldn’t say at the news conference whether the spas Long allegedly targeted were used for prostitution or sex work.
“We are not about to get into victim blaming, victim shaming here,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. “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.”
Long may not have been arrested Tuesday night if not for his family, officials said. Members of Long’s family recognized his car in pictures the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office shared on social media, pictures captured by a security camera near one of the massage parlors.
The FBI helped track his whereabout Tuesday but was no longer actively involved in the investigation as of Wednesday morning, according to Atlanta Police Department Chief Rodney Bryant.
When he was arrested, Long was en route to Florida, where he planned on targeting more massage parlors, Baker said.