Eight people were killed in attacks on three Asian massage parlors in the US city on Tuesday Atlanta, while the authorities arrested the alleged perpetrator.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that four of the victims – including seven women and a man – of the shootings are of Korean origin and that the consulate in Atlanta further confirms whether any of them were South Korean nationals.
(In context: Eight shot dead in Asian massage parlors in Atlanta)
The victims lost their lives in three attacks on massage parlors in Asia located around the city of Atlanta in South America.
The alleged perpetrator of the three attacks and murders is a 21-year-old man identified as Robert Aaron Long.
Although the reasons have not yet been revealed, it is believed that there may have been a racial motivation in crimes, because six of the victims are of Asian descent.
However, on Wednesday, the American police said: “The suspect took responsibility for the shootings”, said the captain. Jay Baker, from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office at a press conference.
“It’s still very early, but he seems to say he wasn’t motivated by racism.” However, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long told police he could be “sexually addicted.”
“He suggested that he had potential sexual addiction problems and that he could have frequented several of these places in the past,” local authorities said.
We will defend our American and Korean American colleagues to make them feel safe
This triple shooting is taking place in a context of growing concern among the Asian American population, which denounces an increase in racist attacks against them.
The American President, Joe Biden, said on Wednesday that violence against people of Asian descent was “very worrying” and addressed the dismay suffered by the community in the United States.
The president said he had spoken to the attorney general and the director of the FBI investigating agency and said The reasons for Tuesday’s incident have not yet been determined and that left eight dead, six of them Asian.
“I know Asian Americans are very concerned because, as you know, we’ve been talking about brutality against Asian Americans in recent months,” Biden said. It is “very worrying,” he added.
Violence against the Asian community in the USA has grown enormously in the last year (e.g. 1,900 percent in New York, according to the city’s police department) in connection with the covid pandemic, the first cases of which were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and the growing Washington-Beijing polarization.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blink, condemned the killings in Seoul on Wednesday. “I want to offer my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who died. We will defend our American and Korean American colleagues to make them feel safe,” he said. flash during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, in statements collected by the Yonhap agency.
INTERNATIONAL DRAFTING
* With information from Efe
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