Atlanta Spa Shootings: Sex Addiction, Not Racial Hatred, May Have Driven Suspect, Officials Say

The suspect accused of killing eight people at day spas in and around Atlanta indicated he had issues with sexual addiction and the shootings may have not been motivated by racial hatred, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

Still, officials said they were investigating whether the deaths were hate crimes amid concerns over a wave of attacks on Asian Americans. Six of the victims were Asian and seven were women.

Officials also said Robert Aaron Long, 21, was planning to go to Florida in a plot to attack “some type of porn industry.”

The attack haunted members of the Asian American community who saw the shootings as an attack on them, given a recent wave of assaults that coincided with the spread of the coronavirus across the United States.