6 of the 8 people killed in the Atlanta massage parlor shootings were Asian women
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images
- 6 of the 8 people shot dead Tuesday in Atlanta were Asian women, law enforcement said.
- As of early Wednesday, none had been named, but some details were available.
- A 21-year-old white man, Aaron Robert Long, has been arrested over the killings.
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The majority of those shot dead in massage parlors around Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday were Asian women.
Law enforcement said that six of the eight victims fit that category. The other two killed were a white woman and a white man.
The killings took place in two locations, authorities said. The first was at Young's Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County, just outside Atlanta.
Four people were killed there, according to the sheriff's department: two Asian women and the two white victims.
Later, police were called to Gold Spa in Atlanta, around 30 miles away. The Atlanta Police Department said they found three women there shot dead, and a fourth at Aromatherapy Spa just across the road.
None of the women have been named. According to CNN, authorities are withholding the identities while they inform the victims' next of kin.
According to local Korean-language outlet Atlanta K the women killed in the Gold Spa were of Korean descent, with one victim in her mid-50s and another in her mid-70s.
Foreign ministry officials in South Korea said they had confirmed that four of the women were "of Korean descent" and were investigating to see if other victims were as well.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been named by Atlanta police as the suspect in all eight killings. He was arrested after a car chase in Crisp County, Georgia, some 150 miles away.
-Stop AAPI Hate (@StopAAPIHate) March 17, 2021
Parts of the strip where the last shootings took place are known as Atlanta's red-light district, according to local reports.
No motive for the shootings has been established. But they come amid a spike in attacks on Asian-Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a recent study, hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased 150% during the pandemic, while overall hate crimes decreased by 7%.
President Joe Biden addressed the surge in a televised address Friday, calling it "un-American" and saying "it must stop."
In a statement posted on Twitter the Stop AAPI Hate group, formed to combat the surge in hate crimes, described the killings as an "unspeakable tragedy."
"The reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy - for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community - which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination," said the statements.
Cherly Teh contributed reporting for this article
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