Thursday, March 18, 2021

On Thursday, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long is facing multiple counts of murder and assault for the series of three shootings, which he is accused of carrying out Tuesday. Together, the shootings left eight people killed and one person injured. His motive remains undetermined.

Long began his shooting rampage around 5 PM Eastern Time Tuesday at Young’s Asian Massage, a massage parlour near Acworth, Georgia. At the parlour, Long shot five people, only one of whom survived their injuries. Two died at the scene and two later died at a hospital. At 5:47 PM, police responded to reports of a robbery at Gold Spa on Piedmont Road in northeast Atlanta, about 48 km (30 miles) from the first shooting scene. In the recorded 9-1-1 emergency call, the woman told the dispatcher, “We’re hiding right now. They have a gun. Please come, OK?” When officers arrived at the scene, three women were found dead. After a manhunt, police arrested Long in Crisp County, about 240 km (150 miles) south of Atlanta.

The victims of the Cherokee County shooting were identified as Delaina Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44. The Atlanta victims have not yet been identified. The sole survivor of the attacks was identified as Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz. Yoseline Gonzalez, the 9-year-old daughter of the survivor, watched painfully as her father was loaded into an ambulance. Gonzalez has a long road to recovery, which has been anything but easy. “I don’t really know what to do. I try to calm myself down,” she told CNN affiliate WGCL, wiping away her tears.

Two of Long’s former school classmates theorize that Long was driven by a sexual addiction and an uncontrollable desire to go to massage parlours to engage in sex acts. Because of these sex habits, Long has struggled with bouts of depression.

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