On Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 21-year-old Robert Long went to three metro Atlanta spas where he shot a total of nine people, killing eight and injuring one. Long told the police that he had a sex addiction and that massage parlors tempted him. He intended to get rid of the problem. Long also told police that he was on his way to Florida, where he was going to commit similar crimes. Long was still going to target businesses that could be connected to the “porn industry”.
Six of the eight victims were of Asian descent, but it is still unclear as to whether that played a part in the shootings. Many people do believe that the race of the six women was not a coincidence and that they were targeted for that reason. In the past year, there has been a surge in violence against Asian-Americans, mostly because of Covid-19.
Long has been charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. Four of the murder charges and the assault charge stem from the first shooting in Cherokee County, and the other four murder charges come from shootings at two other spas in the city of Atlanta.
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