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Captain Jay Baker has been removed as the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson in the Atlanta spa shooting case following comments he made about the gunman, CNN reports.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Baker said that Robert Aaron Long, who has been charged with eight counts of murder, was “was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope” on Tuesday when he brought a gun to several Atlanta-based spas. The spokesperson added that it “was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
Eight people were killed, including six Asian-American women.
The comments were criticised following the press conference as insensitive and inappropriate given the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Mr Baker also said that the actions displayed by the suspect on Tuesday were not racially motivated based on what Long told police officers. “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,” Mr Baker said.
But critics thought it was too soon to rule out the incident as a hate crime given that Asian-run businesses were targeted and six of the victims were Asian American.
Following Mr Baker’s remarks during the Wednesday press conference, social media posts allegedly from the spokesperson surfaced of him promoting anti-Asian shirts to his followers in 2020.
“Love my shirt” Mr Baker allegedly wrote while sharing two pictures of shirts that read: “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”
The Facebook account has since been deleted, but CNN and The Daily Beast reported the account was under the name “Jay Baker” and included employment information at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department. Mr Baker has not commented on the social media posts.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on Thursday addressing the controversial comments Mr Baker made on Wednesday during the press conference, stating that “they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy, or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect.”
But the office acknowledged that the comments were “construed as insensitive”.
“There are simply no words to describe the degree of human suffering experienced on Tuesday … in our community and in Atlanta,” Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said in a statement.
“I have known and served with Captain Baker for many years. His personal ties to the Asian community and his unwavering support and commitment to the citizens of Cherokee County are well known to many. On behalf of the dedicated women and men of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office we regret any heartache Captain Baker’s words may have caused,” he added.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, was charged with eight counts of murder after he was arrested for his suspected involvement in shootings that took place at three different Atlanta-based spas.
On Tuesday evening, Long was suspected of shooting dead four people inside Young’s Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County. He was suspected of then driving to Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta. Three people were shot dead in Gold Spa and another person in Aromatherapy Spa.
Authorities said they were still investigating the motivations of the gunman, but said it might not have been racially motivated.
“Beyond processing evidence from the scenes, investigators are taking a hard look at what motivated the shooter. Our investigation is far from over and we have not ruled anything out,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement Wednesday night.
The shooting comes as there has been a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans across the United States.
Nearly 3,800 anti-Asian crimes were reported to Stop AAPI Hate last year, according to data released by the reporting forum on Tuesday. Women reported hate crimes 2.3 times more than men, the report added.
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