Fulton County DA will seek hate crime sentence enhancements in Atlanta-area spa shootings

A Georgia district attorney has filed a formal notice that she intends to seek hate crime sentencing enhancements against the man accused of fatally shooting eight people — six of them Asian women — at Atlanta-area spas in March. Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, where four of the killings took place, said she believes 22-year-old Robert Aaron Long was motivated by race and gender bias. 

Long had already pleaded guilty to the other four killings in Cherokee County, where district attorney Shannon Wallace said an investigation didn't uncover evidence of a history of bias against any racial or ethnic group. Speaking at a press conference after Long appeared briefly in Fulton County court Monday, Willis said she has respect for the Cherokee County district attorney, but made her decision to pursue hate crime enhancements based on the facts, the law and her conscience.