Georgia’s first black senator, Democrat Raphael Warnock, says “hatred” was instrumental in the murder of eight people, six of them Asian women, in the wave of shootings at three massage companies in Atlanta earlier this week.
Appearing on Sunday at NBC’s Meet the pressWarnock said: “The police will do the job they need to do, but we all recognize hate when we see it.”
“It is tragic that we have been visited for this type of violence again,” added Warnock.
In an eight-minute interview with presenter Chuck Todd, Warnock continued: “I think it’s important that we focus on the humanity of the victims. I’m hearing a lot about the sniper, but those precious lives that were lost are linked to families. They are connected to people who love them. And then, we need to keep that in mind. “
Authorities initially disregarded the racial motive for the murders. The sniper, announced the then spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Captain Jay Baker, told police officers that he had a “bad day” and that his sex addiction led him to remove the “temptation” that spas of region represented. At the end of the week, FBI director Christopher Wray appeared on the NPR and said, “Although the reason is still under investigation at the moment, it does not appear that the reason was racially motivated.”
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