Eight Shot Dead at Three Day Spas in Atlanta, Georgia Area, Suspect Arrested

Eight people, including at least six Asian women, were shot dead at three day spas in the Atlanta, Georgia area on Tuesday, police said, and man suspected of carrying out all of the attacks has been taken into custody.

Four victims were killed and another was wounded in a shooting on Tuesday afternoon at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta, said Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department.

In Atlanta, police officers responding to a call of a “robbery in progress” shortly before 6 p.m. local time arrived at a beauty spa to find three women shot dead, Police Chief Rodney Bryant told reporters.

Atlanta shootings: Four women dead after gunfire at two spas with suspect on the run
Officers in the Georgia state capital that they are searching for the alleged shooter who drove away in a black Hyundai SUV

Local police released this image of a suspect in the alleged shooting pic.twitter.com/LNF2jkaGGJ

— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) March 16, 2021

While investigating the initial shooting report the officers were called from a second spa across the street where a further victim was found dead of a gunshot wound, Bryant said.

Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock was taken into custody at about 8:30 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday in Crisp County, Georgia, about 150 miles (240 km)south of Atlanta.

Baker said investigators from both jurisdictions were “very confident” that the same suspect was the gunman in all three shootings.

Law enforcement officials did not offer a motive for the shooting rampage and said they did not immediately know if the Asian women were targeted. Also killed in the Cherokee attacks were a white woman and a white man.

A spokesman for the Atlanta field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said the agency was assisting police in Cherokee County and Atlanta.

BREAKING: A mass shooter in Atlanta shot and killed seven people at multiple area spas, including four people who appear to be Asian women.

The shooting spree comes amid a rise in racist attacks against Asian Americans. #gapol https://t.co/5GoEVmv2lE

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 17, 2021

Eight people were killed at Atlanta area massage parlors today. Four people died in the earliest shooting, at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia. Police have arrested a suspect identified as 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long. https://t.co/XnZC1EqYDY

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 17, 2021