‘SEX ADDICT’ MANIAC
Suspect’s sick excuse for massage-parlor massacre
Killed 8, including 6 Asian women
Cops said that Robert Aaron Long, 21, confessed that he killed eight people at three Asian massage parlors in Georgia on Tuesday night because he was addicted to sex and “it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”
The gunman who fatally shot eight people at three Atlanta-area spas is a sex addict who aimed to “eliminate” the “temptation,” and was heading to Florida to possibly continue the carnage at a porn business, authorities said Wednesday.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, may have frequented the spas before he snapped on Tuesday and launched the murderous rampage, investigators alleged, as they continued to search for a motive.
“He has an issue that he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places,” Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said at a press briefing Wednesday. “It’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.
“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
Long — who, according to authorities, has confessed to the slayings — first struck at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, shooting five people, four of whom died.
Investigators at that scene quickly culled surveillance images of the suspect and blasted them out on social media.
“Shortly thereafter, we were contacted by members of [Long’s] family indicating that that may be their son,” said Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds.
The sheriff’s office alerted authorities in neighboring jurisdictions of the suspect’s description, but Long attacked again before he could be apprehended.
About an hour after the first attack, Long allegedly shot up the Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa, both in the Atlanta suburb of Buckhead, killing another four people between the two locations.
He then fled on Interstate 75 heading south, but was spotted by a Georgia state trooper on alert for Long’s black 2007 Hyundai Tucson, according to Fox News.
The trooper used the pursuit intervention technique — commonly known as the PIT maneuver — to knock Long’s Tucson out of control and take him into custody.
A 9mm handgun believed to be used in the attacks was recovered from the car, authorities said.
Authorities on Wednesday credited Long’s parents with helping bring the spree to an end, and said he voiced intent to continue the carnage in Florida.
“Without them, this would not have happened as, well, as quickly as it happened. They were very sup
portive, and certainly this was difficult for them,” said Baker.
The lawman added that Long said he was en route to Florida “to do similar acts,” specifically targeting “some type of porn industry” when he was caught.
“It sounds to me like these locations, he sees them as an outlet for him [for] some things that he shouldn’t be doing — an issue with porn,” said Baker. “He was attempting to take out that temptation.”
Though six of the eight fatal victims were Asian women, Long told cops he was not motivated by racial hate, authorities said.
The four people killed in Cherokee County have been named as: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Xiaojie Yan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Paul Andre Michels, 54.
The Buckhead victims had not been publicly named as of Wednesday evening.
The murders came amid a wave of anti-Asian attacks across the US related to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to fears that bias may have been to blame.
An official determination is yet to be made, but Reynolds said that “the indicators right now are it may not be” racially motivated.
Shocked acquaintances described Long — charged with eight counts of murder and one count of assault — as so religious that he abstained from profanity.
“He was very innocent seeming and wouldn’t even cuss,” a former high-school classmate told the Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.
On a since-deactivated Instagram account that appeared to belong to Long, he described himself by writing, “Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God. This pretty much sums up my life. It’s a pretty good life.”