Georgia seeks death penalty in spa killings

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

A Georgia prosecutor will seek the death penalty against the Atlanta spa shooter, who earlier this year killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent.

Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis said on Tuesday that the suspect committed hate crimes.

“I, along with my staff, have made a determination that this office will seek the death penalty… We will seek sentence enhancement pursuant to Georgia's sentencing enhancement statute, commonly referred to as a hate crime statute based on the race and gender of the victims.”

Twenty-two-year-old Robert Aaron Long was indicted on murder charges for the March 16 spa killings, as well as aggravated assault and domestic terrorism.

In a court filing, Willis said Long had targeted four women in the Atlanta area because of their race, national origin and gender.

In a separate filing, she said she would seek the dealth penalty against him.

Long’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March, Long told investigators he had frequented the spas in the area and his crime was driven by a sex addiction.

Authorities initially declined to identify the shooting as racially motivated.

An anti-Asian hate coalition, which has tracked the recent rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, commended Georgia’s Tuesday announcement and stressed the broader need to address "the combination of racism and misogyny Asian American women experience"

in the US.