Georgia Prosecutor to Seek Hate Crimes Charges, Death Penalty for Atlanta Spa Shooting Suspect

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a Tuesday court filing she would seek to charge the man responsible for a March shooting that killed eight people with a hate crime, in addition to seeking the death penalty.

A grand jury in the Georgia county indicted Robert Aaron Long, 22, as the perpetrator behind the March 16 shooting. Six of the people killed in the attack were women of Asian descent. It will be up to a jury to determine whether Long is guilty of the killings, and under Georgia law, the jury will then issue a verdict on whether the act constituted a hate crime.

The charges against Long include four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of domestic terrorism. The jury’s indictment includes four of the people killed when Long opened fire at two Atlanta-area spas, but does not include another four killed at a third location in Cherokee County.

Long allegedly told police after he was apprehended that he had a “sex addiction,” and that he targeted businesses he viewed as a temptation.

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