A man accused of killing eight people in three shootings at spas in the Atlanta area told investigators he had a sexual addiction and saw business as a temptation he needed to eliminate, officials said on Wednesday.
These details, which emerged during a morning press conference with the mayor of Atlanta and other top officials, offered the first glimpse of what might have motivated Robert Aaron Long to participate in a shooting in two counties on Tuesday night.
The attacks began at about 5 pm Tuesday, when four people were killed near Acworth in Cherokee County, officials said. Less than an hour later, four women were killed in two shootings in Atlanta, Fulton County.
It is not clear whether companies had ties to sex work.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the spas were “businesses operating legally that were not on our radar” and “we are not about to blame the victims, embarrass the victims here”.
The victims in Atlanta were Asian women, as were two of the victims in Acworth, officials said. The other two victims were white and an injured man was stable.
The sheriff’s office identified the victims of Cherokee County as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, from Atlanta; Xiaojie Yan, 49, from Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44.
Feng’s address was unknown. The wounded was identified as Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, from Acworth.
Authorities arrested Long, 21, of Woodstock, after a brief manhunt, said Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff.
He was arrested in Crisp County, about 200 kilometers south of Atlanta, and later extradited to Cherokee County, officials said.
Long has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in Cherokee County and has no bond. He is due to be sued on Thursday morning.
Baker said on Wednesday that the suspect probably acted alone.
“These places, he sees them as an outlet for him, something he shouldn’t be doing,” he said, adding that Long indicated that he had a “problem with pornography” and was “trying to end this temptation” .
Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds added that Long “may have frequented some of these places in the past” and “may have been aggressive”.
Authorities said the suspect told investigators he was on his way to Florida, perhaps to target more companies that looked like spas when he was captured.
The deaths occur amid an increasing number of anti-Asian hate incidents. Research released by Stop AAPI Hate on Tuesday revealed that almost 3,800 incidents were reported over approximately a year during the pandemic and that a disproportionate number of attacks were targeted at women.
But Long told investigators that the attacks did not appear to be motivated by race, officials said.
“We are still at the beginning of this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at the moment,” said Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant.
The FBI was “assisting local investigations,” the agency said Wednesday morning.
Bottoms said in a statement that “a crime against any community is a crime against all of us”.
“I commend the police for their quick work on the arrest of a suspect in the tragic shooting,” she said. “I maintained close contact with the White House and APD while working with federal, state and local partners to investigate the suspect responsible for this senseless violence in our city.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden was briefed “overnight about the horrific Atlanta shootings” and would be briefed again by Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday morning.
“White House officials have contacted the mayor’s office and will remain in contact with the FBI,” said Psaki.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry told NBC News that four of the women who died were of Korean origin, but their nationalities have yet to be confirmed.
During a visit to South Korea, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the shootings and said that this type of violence has no place in America or anywhere.
“We will stand up for the right of our American and Korean-American countrymen to be safe and to be treated with dignity,” he said.
As the shots were all in spas, Atlanta police said that officers were dispatched to similar businesses and that patrols increased.
