The man arrested for allegedly gunning down eight people at massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia, told authorities that the shooting was not racially motivated and that he may have a “sex addiction, officials said Wednesday according to the Associated Press.
“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places, and it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Capt. Jay Baker, Cherokee County Sheriff’s spokesman, said according to the AP.
Six of the eight individuals killed during the shootings were Asian, and seven were women, the AP reported. Investigators are still investigating whether the shootings could have constituted hate crimes, the AP reported. (RELATED: Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Reportedly Increased During Pandemic)
“But the indicators right now are it may not be,” Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said, the AP reported.
#BREAKING: 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, the accused gunman in today’s Cherokee County spa shooting, has been apprehended in Crisp County, Georgia. The news comes as officials announce a fourth person has died: https://t.co/1spPrt8Hco pic.twitter.com/XnUnsUhWcw
— AJC (@ajc) March 17, 2021
Law enforcement also said that the shooter, identified as 21-year-old Ryan Aaron Long, was planning on attacking “some type of porn industry” located in Florida, according to the AP.
Officials did not confirm if Long had gone to the parlors prior to the shootings, the AP reported.
The shootings occurred across three massage parlors in a matter of hours. Three were killed and two were injured at the first massage parlor in Cherokee County, Georgia, attacked by the shooter. Then, four more individuals were shot and killed in Atlanta massage parlors across the street from one another.