A gunman's rampage that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in the Atlanta area this week has set off a new wave of fear and outrage among Asian Americans, coming in a year of anti-Asian violence across the country
Mourners gather for a vigil in New York, on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, in honor of the eight people who were shot to death at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area on Tuesday evening. Six of the victims were Asian, the authorities said, raising fears that there may have been a racial motivation to the crimes; Image: Andrew Seng/The New York Times
ACWORTH, Ga. — A gunman’s rampage that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in the Atlanta area this week has set off a new wave of fear and outrage among Asian Americans, coming in a year of anti-Asian violence across the country.
The suspect who was charged on Wednesday with the killings at three spas told detectives that he had frequented massage parlors in the past and had carried out the attacks as a way to eliminate temptation.
Investigators said they had not ruled out a racial motive, even as the suspect, a 21-year-old white man from the Atlanta suburbs, denied being driven by such bigotry. He told the police that he had a “sexual addiction” and saw the spas as an outlet for something “that he shouldn’t be doing,” said Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
“He was attempting to take out that temptation,” Baker said. All but one of the victims were women.
Still, around Atlanta and throughout the country, officials and community leaders said it could not be ignored that most of those killed in the rampage had been of Asian descent.
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