Georgia man charged with killing eight people when he was three Atlanta area On Tuesday, the Cherokee County massage parlor pleaded guilty and hoped to sentence life imprisonment to the first four shooting deaths.
Robert Aaron Long will still face the death penalty if he is convicted in four other shootings in Atlanta, where he faces charges of domestic terrorism, in addition to murder, but also increased hate crimes. Long is white, and six of the victims are Asian women.
A judge is listening to a prosecutor describe the details of his crime. The prosecutor said that the 22-year-old defendant had signed a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to all charges in Cherokee County, where he was charged with malicious murder, felony murder, attempted murder and severe assault.
The man accused in the Atlanta Spa shooting faces charges of malicious murder and aggravated assault
Police said that the attack began before 5 pm on March 16, 2020, when Lang shot and killed four people at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, including three women and two Asians. He also shot and wounded a fifth person, they said.
Police said Lang then drove south to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at the Gold Spa, then crossed the road to the Aromatherapy Spa and shot another woman. All victims in Atlanta are Asian women.
The people killed at the Cherokee County Spa were: Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49 years old; Feng Daoyou, 44; Delane Yarn, 33 years old; and Paul Michels, 54 years old. The victims in Atlanta are: Suncha Kim, 69 years old; Park Soon Jung, 74 years old; Hyun Jung Grant, 51 years old; He Yong Aiyue, 63 years old.
Long is scheduled to reappear in Fulton County next month. District Attorney Fani Willis filed a notice stating that she intends to seek aggravated penalties and death sentences for hate crimes based on actual or perceived race, nationality, gender, and gender. Four women killed in Atlanta.
Georgia’s new hate crime law does not provide for a separate hate crime. After a person has been convicted of a potential crime, the jury must determine whether the person was prejudiced, which will bring additional punishment.
The 19 indictments in Fulton County include allegations of murder, felony murder, serious assault, and domestic terrorism.
Police said Lang returned to his car and drove south after the shooting occurred at two spas in Atlanta.
At that time, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office recognized their son in a static image in a safety video posted on social media, and Long’s parents had already called the authorities for help. The prosecutor said his parents had tracked his movements through his “Find My iPhone” app, which allowed the authorities to track their son on Interstate 75.
The deputy of the state police and sheriff spotted his SUV, and one of the officers rammed his vehicle and forced Long to stop. Lang then surrendered to the rural authorities in Crisp County, about 225 kilometers south of Atlanta.
Long told the police that his attack was not racially motivated, and a spokesperson for Sheriff Cherokee said it did not appear to be a hate crime, and it aroused widespread suspicion and anger.
“He obviously has a problem. He thinks that he is addicted to sex and sees these places as things that allow him to go to these places. He wants to eliminate the temptation for him,” Cherokee Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker initially told reporters.
Baker was also criticized for saying that Lang had a “very bad life” and was removed from the case.
State Representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American to serve in the Georgia House of Representatives and a frequent advocate for women and communities of color, stated that the shooting appeared to be in the context of “gender-based violence, misogyny, and xenophobia. The intersection of psychology”. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Burtons said that regardless of the shooter’s motives, “this is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it must be stopped.”
© 2021 Canadian Press
