Horror struck the Asian American community on Tuesday, March 16, as eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.
Police arrested a suspect on Tuesday for the eight murders. Robert Aaron Long was charged with the murders on Wednesday, March 17.
Long told police that the attacks were not motivated by race, and claimed to have a “sex addiction.” Authorities say that “he lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation,” according to AP.
The attacks began on Tuesday at about 5 p.m. Four people were killed in Acworth, a town north of Atlanta. According to authorities, less than an hour later, four women were killed in two separate spa shootings in Atlanta.
Seven of the victims were women, and six of the women were of Asian descent.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has reported that its diplomats in Atlanta confirmed that four of the women who died during the attacks were of Korean descent.
As of Saturday, the victims of both the shooting at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Ga. and the Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa shootings in Atlanta, Ga. have been named.
The victims are: Delaina Ashley Yaun, aged 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, aged 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, aged 49, of Kennesaw; Daoyou Feng, aged 44; Soon Chung “Julie” Park, aged 74, of New York; Suncha Kim, aged 69, of Atlanta; Yong Ae Yue, aged 63, of Duluth; and Hyun Jung Grant, aged 51, of Duluth. Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortis of Acworth, aged 30, was injured in the attack.
According to the BBC, Vice President Kamala Harris—the first Asian American to act as VP in the United States—stated during a meeting with Irish officials: “I do want to say to our Asian-American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people.”
President Joe Biden, who had been briefed on the shootings, spoke with reporters before his virtual meeting with the Irish Prime Minister on Wednesday.
“Whatever the motivation here, I know Asian Americans are very concerned,” said President Biden according to The New York Times. “Because as you know I have been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans for the last couple months, and I think it’s very, very troubling. But I am making no connection at this moment to the motivation of the killer. I’m waiting for an answer from — as the investigation proceeds — from the F.B.I. and from the Justice Department. And I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”
Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a rise of anti-Asian hate incidents. Research that has been released by Stop AAPI Hate showed that roughly 3,800 incidents have been reported since the start of the pandemic, and a disproportionate amount have been targeted at women.
According to the Associated Press, the attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the United States, and the deadliest since August 2019. In 2020, the number of mass shootings in the country hit an all-time low in over a decade.
On Wednesday, March 17, Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco sent out an email to the UMass Boston community condemning the shooting in Georgia, calling it “a shocking crime in its audacity and calculated racist cruelty.” At the end of February, the Chancellor also sent out an email denouncing what he referred to as the “pandemic of hate and violence directed toward Asian Americans.”
Chancellor Suárez-Orozco also urged any student who had faced hateful speech or actions to report it to the university’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, which can be found at: https://www.umb.edu/crtix. He also encouraged students to visit University Health Services should they need to access counseling services. The link to the Health Services Counseling Center can be found at: https://www.umb.edu/healthservices/counseling_center