A man police say killed eight people - including six Asian women - at three spas in the Atlanta, Georgia, area has been charged with murder as police begin identifying the victims, reports said Thursday.
The killings sparked anger and fear in the Asian American community, which has faced a dramatic increase in violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities can't confirm the killings were motivated by race.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, told police his actions were not spurred by race and that he frequented some of the massage parlors where the shootings took place.
Cherokee County Sheriff's Office representative Capt. Jay Baker said the suspect viewed the spas, which are all listed on a popular massage parlor website, as "a temptation that he wanted to eliminate," reports said.
Long told investigators he had a "sexual addiction" and had killed the women to eliminate "temptation" and as a form of vengeance, police said.
Cherokee County officials announced late Wednesday that 21-year old Robert Aaron Long had been charged with four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in the shooting involving three women and two men at Young's Asian Massage.
Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Long may have frequented these places in the past and may have been "lashing out."
"This was a tragic day...whatever the motivation was for this guy, we know that the majority of the victims were Asian...it is unacceptable, it is hateful and it has to stop," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said according to The New York Times.
According to Reynolds, the suspect was initially identified through surveillance camera images from one of the crime scenes. After police posted the images to social media, Long's parents got in touch to say they believed it was their son.
Because of the family's cooperation, authorities were able to track Long's cellphone, which helped them find him after the killings.
