WOODSTOCK, GA — Authorities are searching for answers to why a gunman opened fire at three massage parlors across metro Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least eight people and wounding more.
However, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday that the gunman, identified as Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, admitted to killings and blamed the massage parlors for fueling his sex addiction.
Authorities arrested Long after disabling his vehicle in Crisp County, Georgia, more than 180 miles south of Acworth.
Long was charged in connection with the shooting at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, and at the Aroma Therapy Spa and the Gold Spa in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon.
Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office detectives said they were able to track Long’s movements via GPS as he was traveling south on Interstate 75. Cherokee Sheriff Frank Reynolds contacted Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock. Crisp County sheriff’s deputies, along with the Georgia State Patrol, were waiting for Long as he entered Crisp County.Subscribe
After a short pursuit, a “PIT maneuver” was conducted on Long’s vehicle, and he was taken into custody without incident.
A 9 mm firearm was found during the traffic stop, authorities said.
Long was taken to the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center on Wednesday morning. He is currently charged with four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault, and has no bond, Baker said.
Baker, along with Atlanta police Sgt. John Chafee, both confirmed that Long is a suspect in all three shootings.
“Video footage from our Video Integration Center places the Cherokee County suspect’s vehicle in the area, around the time of our Piedmont Road shootings,” Chafee said. “That, along with video evidence viewed by investigators, suggests it is extremely likely our suspect is the same as Cherokee County’s, who is in custody. Because of this, an investigator from APD is in Cherokee County and we are working closely with them to confirm with certainty our cases are related.”
Here are five things to know about the shootings:
1. 8 people have died so far
Atlanta police officers were called to a robbery in progress at 5:47 p.m. at a spa. While officers were at that scene, they learned of a call reporting shots fired across the street.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant confirmed three people were killed at Gold Massage Spa in Northeast Atlanta, at 1916 Piedmont Road near Buckhead, and a fourth person was killed at the spa across the street at Aroma Therapy Spa, 1907 Piedmont Road.
Earlier in the afternoon, authorities in Cherokee County, roughly 35 miles north of Atlanta, said four people were killed and one other injured at a massage parlor there, according to local news outlets.
Baker said once photos of Long were posted on social media, his family members alerted authorities that it was their relative.
It appears that all five victims were shot inside the business, near the corner of Georgia Highway 92 and Bells Ferry Road, Baker said. Long was captured by surveillance video pulling up to the business around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, minutes before the shooting, authorities said.
Deputies called to the scene arrived minutes later to find two victims shot dead and three with gunshot wounds. The injured victims were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Kennesaw, where two more died, Baker said.
The attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the U.S., and the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shooting that left nine people dead, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
2. Many of the victims are of Asian descent
Bryant said all four victims killed at the Atlanta-area spas were women, and “It appears that they may be Asian,” the Associated Press reported.
But he stopped short of answering questions during a news conference about whether the incidents were being considered racially motivated, saying the investigation “was still early.”
Police confirmed that two of the Cherokee County victims were also of Asian descent.
The names of victims from Cherokee County are:
- Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth: deceased
- Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta: deceased
- Xiaojie Yan, 49, of Kennesaw: deceased
- Daoyou Feng, 44, (unknown address): deceased
- Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth: injured
The victims from the Atlanta area have not been identified yet.
Cherokee sheriff’s investigators interviewed Long in Crisp County following his capture Tuesday night.
Long confessed to the shootings in Cherokee County and Atlanta, Baker said. Long also told investigators the crimes were not racially motivated but that he “blames the massage parlors for providing an outlet for his addiction to sex.”
“He was fed up, at the end of his rope,” Baker said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and that’s what he did.”
Even though Long blamed the massage parlors as an outlet for his sex addiction, Atlanta officials said that as far as they knew those spas were operating legally.
“We’re not about to get into victim blaming, victim shaming here,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during the news conference.
3. He was on his way to Florida
Baker confirmed Wednesday morning that Long was on his way to Florida to “commit similar acts” before he was captured in Crisp County. They said they believe he was going to carry out another shooting.
4. Long graduated from the Cherokee County School District
Cherokee County School District Chief Communications Officer Barbara Jacoby confirmed to Patch on Wednesday morning that Long graduated from Sequoyah High School in 2017.
5. Long has been described as heavily involved in his church
A former classmate of Long’s has described him as “nerdy” and “innocent,” Heavy reported.
“He was very innocent seeming and wouldn’t even cuss,” the classmate told The Daily Beast. “He was sorta nerdy and didn’t seem violent from what I remember. He was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor. He was big into religion.”
Authorities did confirm Long has a hunting license.
A now-deleted video from Crabapple First Baptist Church showed Long’s testimony at his baptism.
“We are grieved to hear the tragic news about the multiple deaths in the Atlanta area. We are heartbroken for all involved,” a statement from church elders said to Heavy. “We grieve for the victims and their families, and we continue to pray for them. Moreover, we are distraught for the Long family and continue to pray for them as well.”
PEABODY, PATCH
