On March 16, local time, three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, were shot in succession, resulting in 8 deaths.

Six of them are Asian women.

The police have arrested a suspect.

The authorities said it was not clear whether the victims were targeted because of their race.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 17th that four of the people killed in the shooting were of Korean origin.

  On the afternoon of the 16th local time, a shooting incident occurred in a massage parlor called "Young's Asian Massage" in Cherokee County, northwest of Atlanta.

4 people were killed and 1 person was injured.

Among the dead were 2 Asian women, 1 white male and 1 white female.

  Soon after, the police received a report that three Asian women were found shot dead in a massage shop called "Gold Massage Spa" in northeast Atlanta.

When the police searched the crime scene, they received a report that another massage parlor "Aroma Therapy Spa" opposite the crime scene also had a shooting.

The police subsequently discovered that an Asian woman was shot dead in the store.

  Cherokee County Sheriff Baker said that surveillance video showed a man parking outside the massage parlor before the shooting.

Baker said that the suspect is a 21-year-old Georgian man Robert Aaron Long, who has been arrested by the police.

  The authorities said that it is not yet clear about the motive of the attack and whether the victims were targeted because of their race.

However, the New York Police Department’s counter-terrorism department said on the evening of the 16th that although there is no known connection with New York City in the incident, “out of a high degree of caution, the police department will deploy police forces in Asian communities throughout the city.”

  An official of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 17th: "The consul of the South Korean Consulate in Atlanta confirmed to the local police that the four dead were of Korean origin." He added that further investigations are currently underway on whether the four people hold Korean nationality.

  (Producing Li Jiali)

Editor in charge: [Liu Xian]