Suspect charged with murder over Atlanta spa shootings

The shootings appear to be at ‘intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia,’ says US politician.

A white gunman was charged on Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area spas in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly come under attack during the coronavirus pandemic. Investigators are trying to unravel what might have compelled 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long to commit the worst mass killings in the United States in almost two years. Long told police that Tuesday’s attack was not racially motivated. He claimed to have a “sex addiction”, and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation.