Police: Suspect a patron at 2 spas

Investigators say hate crime motive not ruled out

The man charged with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area spas Tuesday had been a customer of at least two of the businesses, police said.

Deputy Chief Charles Hampton of the Atlanta Police Department said in a news conference Thursday that the suspect had patronized both of the businesses that were attacked in the city, where police say he shot and killed four women of Asian descent.

Authorities have said he drove to those businesses after fatally shooting four people at a spa in the suburbs, including two women of Asian descent. The police there said they did not know whether the suspect was a customer at that location.

As the killings brought a wave of outrage and attention to violence against Asian Americans, Atlanta police officials emphasized that

they were continuing to investigate all possible motives for the killings.

“Nothing is off the table for our investigation,” Hampton said when asked whether the police had ruled out classifying the attack as a hate crime.

Atlanta police officials also sought to distance themselves from the investigation in Cherokee County, where the first four victims were killed. A sheriff’s deputy there who discussed the assailant’s self-described addiction to sex, as well as his claim that he was not motivated by race, later came under fire for saying the suspect had carried out the killings after “a really bad day.”

“While the cases are linked by the same perpetrator,” said Sgt. John Chafee, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department, “our investigations are independent of one another, and there are different dynamics to each.”

The Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office said it was also investigating whether the killings were hate crimes.

The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has been charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault and is being held at the Cherokee County jail. His lawyer said Long had waived an arraignment that had been scheduled for Thursday.

Long, who is white, said he had targeted the spas because he wanted to remove a “temptation,” authorities have said. A former roommate of his at a halfway house said Long had tried to stop acting on his sexual desires as recently as 2020 but had continued going to spas for sex.

The four victims at the suburban spa, two of whom were white, have been identified, but Hampton said he could not yet release the names of the women killed at the two spas in the city because the police have not been able to reach the “proper next of kin.” He said the police were working with the South Korean Consulate to do so.

The police have identified the victims of the attack on Young’s

Asian Massage in Cherokee County as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44.

Long’s statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism in the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted for violence during the coronavirus pandemic. Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker also drew criticism for saying Long had “a really bad day” and “this is what he did.”

Sheriff Frank Reynolds released a statement Thursday acknowledging that some of Baker’s comments stirred “much debate and anger” and said the agency regrets any “heartache” caused by his words.

“In as much as his words were taken or construed as insensitive or inappropriate, they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect,” Reynolds said, adding that Baker “had a difficult task before him, and this was one of the hardest in his 28 years in law enforcement.”

The sheriff ’s statement did not address a 2020 Facebook post that appeared to have been written by Baker promoting a T-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus. Baker has not commented on the post, which was taken down Wednesday.

Attorney J. Daran Burns issued a statement saying he had been appointed to represent Long. He offered condolences to victims’ families and said he was working on Long’s behalf “to investigate the facts and circumstances” surrounding the slayings.

Long waived his right to an initial hearing in Cherokee County Magistrate Court on his lawyer’s advice, the statement said.

The attacks prompted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to change their plans for a previously scheduled trip to Atlanta. The pair postponed a political event in favor of meeting Friday with Asian American community leaders.