A sheriff deputy in Georgia, who has been the main channel of information about deadly violence at three massage companies in the Atlanta area, faced criticism on Wednesday for saying that Tuesday “was a very bad day” for the suspect and anti-Asian Facebook posts he made last year.
At a press conference, the deputy, Captain Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, discussed the mood of the man accused of eight murder charges in Tuesday’s shootings. He said the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, understood the seriousness of his actions when he was interviewed by investigators on Wednesday morning.
“He was quite fed up and almost at the end of the line,” said Captain Baker. “Yesterday was a very bad day for him, and that is what he did.”
The comments were widely criticized on social media, with critics characterizing them as insensitive and pointing to Facebook posts of March 30 and April 2 of last year by Captain Baker, in which he promoted the sale of an anti-Asian t-shirt. The shirts, echoing President Donald J. Trump’s rhetoric, referred to the coronavirus as a “virus imported from Chy-na”.
“Place your order while they last,” wrote Captain Baker at the time in one of the posts. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The media Buzzfeed and The Daily Beast published articles about the captain’s comments and Facebook posts on Wednesday, and actress Arden Cho and others condemned them on social media.
“The cop says it’s not a hate crime, it’s just him having a bad day,” Ms. Cho wrote on Twitter. “Oh ok .. NO. It is because you are also a racist Jay Baker. “