TeeRoy's 2 Cents:
- Police did a good job in quickly identifying and capturing the gunman.
- It's hard to see this as anything but a hate crime.
- Police need to conduct a thorough investigation before coming to any conclusion about whether he was targeting Asian women.
Eight people were shot dead at three different massage parlors in the Atlanta area Tuesday evening and police have a suspect in custody.
Of the eight victims, six are Asian women, leading investigators to suspect a possible hate motive. Four people were killed at a spa in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth at around 4:50 p.m. About an hour later, four others were killed at a pair of adjacent spas in the city of Atlanta. Investigators believed all three shootings were connected and they arrested 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long after he was seen on surveillance footage. He is believed to be the suspect in all three shooting attacks.
Police have not yet indicated a motive. Stop AAPI Hate, an organization which tracks cases of discrimination against the Asian American community, issued a statement saying, "The reported shootings of multiple Asian American women today in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy — for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the Asian American community, which has been reeling from high levels of racist attacks over the course of the past year." (USA Today)