A 22-year-old Georgia man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to four murders that were part of an Atlanta-area spa shooting spree.
Robert Aaron Long pleaded guilty Tuesday and was given four life sentences without parole, per the Associated Press. He still faces charges in connection with the murders of four other people, with those being prosecuted in another county.
As for Tuesday’s developments, the AP noted that a prosecutor again argued that investigators in Cherokee County had not found evidence of racial bias, despite the fact that most of the victims of the three-location shooting spree in March of this year were of Asian descent. Long, an active Southern Baptist congregant prior to the attacks, is white.
The shooter killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent, on March 16, 2021. The victims were Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, and Yong Ae Yue.
Amid news coverage of the shootings, a number of celebrities and advocacy groups pointed to the recent rise in anti-Asian acts of violence nationwide. Ultimately, data from Stop AAPI Hate showed that reports of anti-Asian hate incidents jumped from 3,795 to 6,603 during the month of March.
If Long had not pleaded guilty on Tuesday, prosecutors had made clear they would have sought the death penalty. As part of the deal, Long pleaded guilty to all of the Cherokee County charges, which spanned from murder to assault. Next month, Long is slated to make an appearance in Fulton County. There, he will be met with a hate crime sentence enhancement in connection with that county’s 19 charges.
