“I’m hiding now,” said the woman. “Please, come.”
Robert Long, 21, was arrested in connection with the attacks 150 miles south of the city, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she was on her way to Florida to potentially take the lives of more victims.
The suspect told police that he believed he had an addiction to sex and that he saw the spas as “a temptation … that he wanted to eliminate,” Cherokee County Sheriff Captain Jay Baker told a news conference on Wednesday .
However, Atlanta police chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to know the reason for the devastating violence.
“When we heard about it last night, we were horrified and the sinking feeling I had was that it must be a crime related to AAPI hate. As we found out the details of the event, I still believe that it is a racially motivated crime,” he said Georgia State Representative Be Nguyen told CNN on Wednesday. “In this specific case, where the victims were Asian women, we see the intersections of racism, xenophobia and gender-based violence.”
“While we are relieved that the suspect was quickly arrested, we are certainly not at peace, as this attack still points to a growing threat that many in the Asian American community face today,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement Wednesday.
Eight people killed in 30 miles
Just before 5 pm Tuesday, MPs were called to Young’s Asian Massage between the cities of Woodstock and Acworth, Georgia, after reports of a shootout, Cherokee county sheriff officials said.
The shooting left four dead – two Asians and two whites – and one wounded person, Baker said. Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two died in a hospital.
The dead were Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, from Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, from Atlanta; Xiaojie Yan, 49, from Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44.
The injured survivor was Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, from Acworth, officials said.
About an hour later and 30 miles away, Atlanta police responded to what was described as a robbery at the Gold Massage Spa on Piedmont Road, Atlanta. Police said they found three people dead.
While there, police received another call for shots fired across the street at the Aroma Therapy Spa, where they found a dead person, Bryant said.
The names of the four victims have not yet been released by the authorities.
Investigators found a surveillance video of a suspect near the Cherokee County scene and posted images on social media.
Long’s family saw the images, contacted the authorities and helped identify him, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said on Wednesday.
“(Family members) are very upset and have been very helpful in this apprehension,” said Reynolds.
Investigators were able to trace Long’s phone number, and Reynolds contacted the Sheriff of Crisp County, Georgia, to inform him that Long appeared to be heading in that direction, the Cherokee County Sheriff said on Wednesday.
‘It would be appropriate’ if the suspect were charged with a hate crime, says the mayor
At around 8:30 pm on Tuesday, the highway patrol about 150 miles south of Atlanta was alerted that a suspect in the Cherokee County shooting was coming his way, Reynolds said in a video on the Department’s Facebook page of the Crisp County Sheriff.
After Long’s vehicle was located, a chase took place on Interstate 75 and a state police officer carried out a maneuver that left the SUV out of control, officials said.
Police confiscated a 9mm gun from his vehicle, according to Baker, the Cherokee County sheriff’s captain.
Video evidence – including that showing Long’s vehicle in the Atlanta shootings area – suggests that Long is responsible for the Atlanta killings, police said.
Long took responsibility for the shootings in Cherokee County and Atlanta, said the Cherokee County Sheriff’s office.
A police source told CNN that the suspect is under suicide surveillance and was wearing a vest to protect him from self-harm in the police photo.
He is facing four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault, according to the county sheriff’s office. More charges are possible.
Bottoms added that she thought it “would be appropriate” if Long were charged with a hate crime.
“Sex” is a hate crime category under Georgia’s new law. If Long was targeting women out of hate for them or using them as a scapegoat for their own problems, this could potentially be a hate crime. The shootings do not need to be racially motivated to constitute a hate crime in Georgia.
A police source told CNN on Wednesday that Long was recently kicked out of the home by his family because of his sexual addiction, which, according to the source, often included spending hours watching porn online.
A CCSO incident report said that an anonymous 911 call told the dispatch that Long was “kicked out of his parents’ house last night”, adding that he “was thrilled,” says the report.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Amanda Watts, Audrey Ash, Casey Tolan, Nicole Chavez, Artemis Moshtaghian, Raja Razek, Jamiel Lynch, Steve Almasy and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.