i am contractually obligated to be back tomorrow, so i'll see you then, goodnight. tonight, here in the heart of atlanta, a community shattered by gunfire claiming the lives of eight people, six of them asian women. their hopes, their futures taken by one gunman. the shooting coming as america reckons with a surge in hate crimes against the asian american community, now uncovering the stories behind those gone but never forgotten by family. a daughter planning a funeral instead of a 50th birthday. >> i don't think that she'll be able to see -- >> a son trying to make sense of the senseless. >> i'm a train wreck at night when i'm alone. >> what do you miss most? >> her. >> now the community picking up the pieces. what haunting surveillance video

showed moments before the deadly rampage. neighbors and the nation calling for change and justice. this special edition of "nightline," "murder in atlanta," will be right back. really make my dry skin healthier in one day? it's true jen. this prebiotic oat formula moisturizes to help prevent dry skin. impressive! aveeno® healthy. it's our nature.™ try the body wash, too. we do it every night. like clockwork. it's our nature.™ do it! run your dishwasher with cascade platinum. and save water. did you know certified dishwashers... ...use less than four gallons per cycle, while a running sink uses that, every two minutes. so, do it with cascade. the surprising way to save water.

♪ thanks for joining us. tonight, the outpouring of grief

in the streets of atlanta where earlier this week a shooter opened fire at three asian-themed spas, killing eight people, including six asian women. raising questions about whethe a toxic mix of gender and race collided. the shooting also fanning fears of anti-asian bias, with attacks against the community seeing a recent spike across america. on a damp and dreary afternoon, terror and horror seizes the atlanta area as a lone assailant launches an hours-long shooting rampage across multiple asian-owned spas. >> some guy came in and took the gun, so everybody heard the gunshots. >> we do not have a witness that actually is alive right now that can tell us who shot them. >> reporter: 21-year-old robert aaron long arrives at yung's asian massage parlor 45 minutes north of the city.

the man allegedly sits in his car for almost an hour. then around 4:50, he enters yung's and opens fire. police arriving within minutes, finding a massacre. >> sounded like pop pop pop pop pop! >> reporter: four are dead. she went by emily, the owner of yung's, a licensed massage therapist. she would have turned 50 dead. ashley yung, 33-year-old mother of two, leaves behind a 15-year-old son and a baby born months ago. she'd been getting a couples massage with husband mario, who was in a separate room and was able to escape. paul andre michaels, 54, of atlanta. dahlia fung, 44, whose address wasn't immediately known.

a fifth person is in stable condition, 30-year-old elias hernandes ortiz, leaving the store next door to the spa and was hit. >> we never know when we're at the wrong place at the wrong time. i feel like that's what happened with him. >> reporter: police gathering evidence from nearby surveillance footage, posting images online in hopes the public can identify the shooter. long's father called 911. >> i was there speaking with the family. they were very helpful in this apprehension. >> reporter: almost an hour after the first shooting, 30 miles away, police respond to a call about a rob by at the gold spa. it's in an area with a strip club and other spas. >> we heard numerous gunshots coming from across the street. >> reporter: inside gold spa, officers find three women shot. one of them is hung jung grant. >> she was quite literally the only thing that kept us running. calling every night to check up

on us before she goes to bed.yo working however long she needed to. >> reporter: as officers are tending to the dying victims, they're alerted to another shooting directly across the street at the 24-hour aromatherapy spa. >> ■someladiesgot urt,i think. everybody's scared. so they're hiding behind. but the lady's passed out. >> reporter: inside they find a korean woman dead from a gunshot wound. the victims from the second and third shootings are sung jun park, age 74. sun ja kim, age 69. and yung ai yu, age 63. there's so much we don't know about many of these victims, identities obscured, in part because of the complicated and highly racialized, even dangerous reality for some asian women in america. >> we need to make sure if we have any asian spas, we need to be checking on them. >> reporter: long's parents have

told authorities their son has a tracking app on his cell phone and it's activated. authorities locate long traveling south on i-75, disable his vehicle, arrest him. >> 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. >> reporter: the biggest mass shooting this country has seen since 2019, coming in the midst of an enormous spike in crimes against asian americans and pacific islanders. this week alone, an 83-year-old asian man assaulted. parts of his neck fractured. a 59-year-old asian man beaten, nearly blinded in one eye. a 76-year-old asian woman punched in the eye, left bleeding. >> for over a year, asian americans have been fighting an additional virus of hate and bigotry. our community is bleeding. we are in pain. and for the last year, we've been screaming out for help.

>> reporter: the fear in the asian community, especially in atlanta, now at crisis levels. irene pan owns a spa a few minutes away from where the shooting took place. >> when the sheriff's office said it's not race, it's just sex addiction? >> i really don't think so. >> reporter: she says her employees just want a better life for their families. >> buy a house. having their own car. more freedom. >> what did you call that? >> american dreams. >> reporter: those dreams now clouded with fear. >> personally, we just don't want this to happen again. i warned her it's a concern to come to work right now. some people, it's crazy. i mean, they come -- we never say anything or argument, they'll just shoot you. >> reporter: she's considering buying a gun for protection. for jamie webb, whose mother

owned yung's asian massage, the pain is more powerful than the fear. >> i'm sorry. >> don't be sorry. what does your heart feel like right now? >> empty. she never finished high school, and she -- when i decided to go to college, she was so happy. she just wanted to celebrate. she was just very proud. >> you were the embodiment of your mother's dreams? >> yes. >> when you saw this unfold, what went through your mind? >> my first thought was for jamie. life-changing experience for both of us. the last couple of years she would say, i'm going to be able to retire soon. >> how do you want your mom to be remembered? >> she's a great mother. she'd want us to have a good life, that's why she worked so hard. >> your mom would be very proud of you. >> yes. >> and i know she was.

>> for more on the investigation and the search for a motive, here's abc's steve osunsami. >> reporter: this is what heartbreak looks like across america. the strangers who are joining the families of victims to cry. this is also what it looks like to stand against hate. people of all colors speaking up and marching out for asian americans who feel under attack. in all, eight people were gunned down in this killing spree. and the number one question for the accused murderer, why? >> the suspect did take responsibility for the shootings. >> investigators say 21-year-old robert eric long told them he struggled with a sex addiction and somehow he thought he'd fix himself by targeting the 24-hour spas where he was a regular. the gun police say he used, they say he bought it here the day of the shooting, and if they hadn't

stopped him they think he would have made to it florida. >> it's likely there would have been more victims. >> reporter: authorities in atlanta suburbs and the city have charged him with eight counts of murder. rodney bryant, interim police chief in atlanta, where the killings spread between two spas. >> i think people thought it was all wrapped up once we made the arrest. but now this is where the real work begins. >> what do you think about the chances of this becoming a hate crimes case? >> it's just too early for me to make that determination. because there's so many questions that are left unanswered. you have to look at the victims that we had in the city of atlanta. all our victims were female, all our victims were asian. there's so much more that needs to be uncovered. >> reporter: the tone is slightly different in the suburbs where the first four victims died and where the accused killer is in custody. >> it's still early, but he does claim it was not racially motivated. >> reporter: the sheriff's office in the suburbs is having to defend itself after their spokesperson came across to some

as racially insensitive, saying this about the accused gunman. >> he was pretty muchlv fed up,t the end of his rope, yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> reporter: after that it was a bad day for the sheriff, who k removed this police captain from briefings on the case. it didn't help when people discovered this now-deleted facebook post by the same captain, telling his friends to buy t-shirts that say "covid-19, imported virus from china." it's the same type of message against asians that people in the community are trying to fight. here in atlanta, authorities say they get it and there's lots of work to do. >> it's frightens asian americans, not just here but across the country. people are scared. >> we recognize the concern and the pain that they're going through. we're here to make sure that this doesn't fall through the cracks, that we not miss one stone as it relates to investigating this case.

>> our thanks to steve. coming up, from racism to sexism. the evolution of asian american representation in hollywood. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme. ♪ the lincoln family of luxury suvs. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®,

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anti-asian attacks in america are not at all new. how do you fight centuries-old hate? here's abc's eva pilgrim. >> reporter: as soon as asian

immigrants set foot in did country, ethnic scapegoating followed soon behind. immigrants helping build the railroads heard they were taking american jobs. >> asians were never regarded as americans. meaning they were never given citizens' rights at the beginning of the republic. >> reporter: in 1871, a violent mob in los angeles lynched at least 17 chinese residents, a massacre fueled by white resentment toward the growing immigrantxñ&ñ population. 1882, animosity led congress to pass the first and only law restricting an ethnic group coming into the country, the chinese exclusion act. it lasted until 1943. >> you make them "the other" through legislation, such as the passage of the chinese exclusion act. to be an "other" is not simply, oh, you're someone else. you're just not an american. it's not like that, it's also m]■

objectified, of being less than human. >> reporter: soon after, what many consider one of the most shameful moments in american history. japanese americans treated as the suspect enemy in their own nation, placed in internment camps during world war ii. >> two-thirds of those japanese americans were u.s.-born americans. and they were forcibly relocated, incarcerated, without due process. >> reporter: for decades, hollywood had both reflected and reinforced portrayals of asian-americans as perpetual foreigners, from "breakfast at tiffany's" to "16 candles." >> what's happening, hot stuff? >> reporter: turning racism into laughs. >> when you see nothing but that clownish, buffoonish image, that alien image constantly painted on our faces, then it's so much easier to not think of us as human.

>> reporter: of all the racist stereotypes, some of the most insidious are those that hypersexualize asian women, frequently portrayed as sex objects like in "austin powers." >> austin powers, very reportern in massage parlors in "rush hour 2." asian women as the focus of the western male gaze is nothing new, the u.s. military in asia fueling sex industries that exploited asian women. it's this scene from "full metal jacket" that has permeated american culture like few others. >> me love you long time! >> reporter: those words used repeatedly in movies like "the 40-year-old virgin." >> me love you long time." >> reporter: tv shows like "south park." >> me love you long time. >> images have power. stories have power. >> reporter: activists say the toxic mix of racism and miss son

they in these portrayals influence the way asian women are treated in society. >> when you think of humans as objects, when you erase their humanity, then it is no surprise that our lives are seen as worthless. >> reporter: in this year of racial reckoning, api activists say the attacks must end and that starts with stamping out the underlying conditions of "otherism" and racism that feed violence. >> racism and zoxenophobia are national problems. the only way to survive this pandemic, the only way to survive these violent attacks, is to work together and recognize our common humanity. >> our thanks to eva. up next, the young asian americans stepping up to protect up next, the young asian americans stepping up to protect the most vulnerable. the they release a lot of scent at first but after a while,

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♪ finally tonight, fighting anti-asian bias by finding strength in numbers. >> the problem that we saw was

so many of our elders being violently attacked for no reason. >> when i heard about the attacks happening in the asian community, i immediately knew how it must be or how it must feel for many of them. >> reporter: another man knocked to the ground in broad daylight. >> linking through social media. complete strangers that had a common goal to protect the elderly in chinatown. anyone can request a chaperone. it doesn't have to be an elderly individual, they don't have to be asian. since we've launched, we've had about 900 people sign up to volunteer. and since atlanta, we've had 300 people sign up in a week. i'm actually fourth generation chinese american. so my grandparents were actually born in the u.s. that's why it's so hard for me to see elderly egg ly asianslc[

harmed. it doesn't matter if your family came here ten generations ago or one generation ago, we're all fighting for the samedream. >> underlying foundation of everything we do is empathy and compassion. the whole vision is to spur everyone to step up and step out and look out for fellow new yorkers. we have ethnic speakers on all our team. for someone like myself who can't speak the language, i look at body language, smiles, they know what we're doing. it's a geat felling. feeling. we hope to live in a world devoid of racism. a world where not one human is treated as less. we need everyone involved. we need all hand on deck. >> i have a lot of hope to create a better place. please, we need you.

>> big or small, be the change you want to see. sometimes it's hard when there seems to be so much hate around us. but in the struggle grows the seed of strength. strength in ourselves, strength in our neighbors, the strength to come together and unite against bigotry. stop the hate. that's "nightline." we'll see you same time next week. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.