in the city just north in cherokee county and two hours south in chris county, police say a suspect inrokee county has been apprehended. a lot to cover. with all that let's hand it over the chris in prime time. >> thauthorities in the area dot believe this is a coincidence. it does seem as though there's some kind of connection. the question, is what? is it opportunity or bias? we'll pick up the story and monitor during our hour. anderson, thank you. i am chris cuomo, and welcome to primetime. eight people killed now in a series of three shootings at spas in atlanta. at least four of the victims are asian women. the question of course is were they targeted? one suspect has just been app re apprehended. when we get more information we'll bring it to you. from that story to absolute bias. democrats have to see an

the sheriff of cherokee county reached out to his partner in crisp county, and we had a trooper monitoring south. the trooper observed the suspect's vehicle traveling south. he started following the vehicle and waited for backup which included two other georgia state troopers as well as the sheriff of chris county and some of his deputies. they initiated a traffic stop and immediately pitted the vehicle. after the vehicle was pitted, the suspect was taken into custody without further incident and transported to the chris county jail. >> i believe captain baker determined that the suspect was on his way to florida, i be believe, perhaps to carry out additional shootings. again, it really speaks to the coordination and the quick response from law enforcement, for as tragic as this was on yesterday in metro atlanta, this could have been a significantly worse -- again, i can't express enough my gratitude for the coordination and the public as a whole should be grateful that this suspect was quickly apprehended because it is very likely that there would have been more victims on yesterday. >> c

but that's what detectives from cherokee county are putting out right now.ing in for this. about this latest afternoon in cherokee county, two people were killed on the scene of the spa, one who died later at the hospital. and then about an hour or so after that, there were shootings at two separate spas, and that's the scene where ryan is right now. now, covid in today's array of good and bad news, vaccine availability is growing nationwide with montana today becoming the latest to announce universal eligibility for all adults in their case starting april 1st. that said, test positivity is ticking back up. positive cases down overall have risen by at least 10% in 15 states since just last week and in minnesota and michigan, new cases have spiked more than 40%. globally, european countries are locking back down as new variants spread and vaccine efforts stall. back home, the tsa is reporting some of the busiest air travel days since the pandemic began. this being spring break season, many travelers are not exactly taking precautions where they land. >> the p

that's according to the captain there in cherokee county. but then he came back down to metro atlanta, kind of the north atlanta area, the buckhead area, for those who are familiar with this area, and he was at two different massage parlors which were across the street from one another. atlanta police told us they had actually gotten calls from one of them. they were told it was a robbery in progress. they responded to a robbery in progress, and while there they got a call for shots fired at a parlor across the street. those two different scenes are something they're looking at. of course, the big question we're asking, are they connected, are the two different in the different counties connected? they say it's too early to say whether they're connected, it's too early to determine if this was any sort of a hate crime or anything like that. they say they certainly are in touch with officials in the other counties to determine what, if anything, connected these incidents overnight, rachel. >> blayne, do you know, and have authorities been abl

and certainly we thank the state patrol, cherokee county and i believe it is chris county where the specific was apprehended. and all of our partners andhold state who assisted with the apprehension of this suspect. i will now turn it over to chief bryant to share additional information and we'll hear from our other law enforcement representatives to share more details on what happened on yesterday and where we stand today. >> thank you, madame mayor. we will present in the order -- in a chronological order so that we can better inform you on how things played out. so we will start off with sheriff from cherokee county, and then it will go to me. we both have our investigator leads that can go into more details as a result of what happened transpired through the investigation. i think it is important to acknowledge the fact i know that we've received a number of calls about is this a hate crime. we are still early in this investigation. so we cannot make that determination at this moment. again, we are very early in this investigation even though we've made an arrest, there is still a lot mo

there's one in cherokee county. the deputy that you mentioned is a cherokee-county deputy. and then, there is the one that happened in atlanta, in fulton county. but regardless of what the state charges are, there's still an opportunity for federal hate-crime charges to be brought, as well. >> there's clearly increasing fear among communities of color across the nation. i'm wondering what is being done in atlanta, now, to help -- help protect citizens and allay their concerns? and is there more that can be done? >> well, we spent a lot of time over the past day or so. reaching out to people in the asian community. just to make sure that we have all of the information that we need to make sure that our communities are protected. president biden and vice president harris are coming to atlanta, tomorrow there will be a discussion with several leaders during their visit tomorrow. and we are going to continue the dialogue. >> do -- do you feel like hate speech and -- and -- you know, obviously, hate-speech violence predates the former president. do you feel like things have gott

one located northwest of the city of cherokee county. northwest of the city in cherokee county.ct in the cherokee county shooting has been taken into custody. now to ryan young who's in atlanta for us and cnn law enforcement analyst charles ramsey with me as well. ryan, i understand that there's some developing news, a suspect has been apprehended, investigators now think these three shootings, according to your reporting, right, that they're connected. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely, don, look i'm still getting text messages from investigators. robert long is the man they've taken into custody. now, look, this all started around 5:00. but the new development is that that suspect was taken into custody somewhere in crisp county after a pit maneuver was performed by the georgia state patrol, when an officer uses the front of his car to hit the back of the suspect's vehicle and sends it into a tail spin. we do know the suspect has been taken into custody. if you look behind me this is still a very active crime scene here and we're told it's still active in cherokee county as well.

a suspect in cherokee county in the shooting there has been taken into custody.s go right to cnn's ryan young. ryan, good evening to you. the fbi now assisting with this investigation. what can you tell us? >> reporter: don, we know that robert long has been arrested in this case. we're told he's 21 years old. that's what the cherokee county sheriff's department released that information early in the evening. we do know there was a chase involved in this and georgia state patrol actually used a p.i.t. maneuver. that's when a trooper uses his car to bump the car and send it out of control. we're not sure if he said anything to authorities about the motive behind this case, but obviously police from several different jurisdictions are working with the theory that all these shootings are connected. now, as i step out of the way here, you can still see the active crime scene. these shootings started around 5:00 this afternoon, don. we know they first happened in cherokee county where four people were shot and killed. and then there are two different scenes here. if y

and at this point, he is still being held in the cherokee county custody, this is one of two counties where he now faces a total of eight murder charges. this morning authorities are investigating why a suspected gunman killed eight people in three atlanta area spas and whether the massacre that left six asian women dead can be prosecuted as a hate crime. the shooting started around 5:00 p.m. tuesday at young's asian massage in cherokee county leaving four people dead. >> do you have a description of him, ma'am? >> i'm hiding right now. >> reporter: and that desperate 911 call came from gold massage spa about 30 miles from the first shooting. police discovered three asian women killed there. >> some guy came in and shoot the gun. and everybody is scared so they are hiding. >> reporter: across the street at a rowromatherapy spa, anothee killed. in cherokee county, police confirmed the names of the people who lost their lives and the man injured. robert aaron long is now behind bars and charged with eight counts of murder. >> even though we've made an arrest, there is still a lot more w

let me ask you about something that captain jay baker of the cherokee county, that's a different county from atlanta, the chairman of the board key county sheriff's office today said about the shooter. watch this. >> he understood the gravity of it, and he was pretty much fed up, coined of at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him hand this is what he did. >> it does raise concerns what, we just heard about humanizing the perpetrator of this mass murder rather than sympathizing with the victims. what was your reaction when you heard that? >> you know, that -- that was not the impression that i got in our pre-meeting before we came out for the press conference. i know that there was sympathy for the victims. there was a lot of compassion, and, listen, in cherokee county, i believe they had one murder last year and they -- they had a mass shoot willing on yesterday, so this was a really big day for all of us but especially big in cherokee county, and the important thing is that they did their jobs. you know, this guy is off of the streets, so i know in my conversat

from cherokee county long traveled roughly 30 miles to atlanta and at two separate massage spas shot down four more people, all asian women. according to a local korean newspaper, the victim at the aromatherapy spa opened the door thinking long was a customer. but he suddenly opened fire and she was shot dead. >> he did frequent those two locations. >> reporter: atlanta police say it is not clear if the killer targeted specific people. >> the investigation into a possible hate crime, is that still on the table. >> our investigation is looking at everything. so nothing is off the table for our investigation. >> reporter: there has been a national backlash against the way cherokee county law enforcement initially pointed to long's motive. >> he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction. >> reporter: social media also jumped on how captain jay baker framed the killer's mindset. >> yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did. >> reporter: making matters worse, baker's anti-asian facebook post last year promoting t-shirts with the message, covid-19, imported virus

. >> cherokee county, just to be clear. >> cherokee county, i'm sorry. apologies for that. jo, let's talk about the victims, the women who lost their lives. what do we know about them? >> we know that of the victims, six were of asian women of descent and we have a list of names released by cherokee county in the last 24 hours. we know it's delaina ashley yaun, xiaojie yan, daoyou feng, no address, no city disclosed there, can paul andre michels and elise hernandez-ortiz who was injured. nobody knows anything about the victims so far, but the mayor said yesterday as the police were giving their press conference, she said she will not stand for any victim shaming or victim blaming, that these spas are businesses that do not, to her knowledge, have a record of engaging with the police or any sort of issues on that front, so we're waiting to get a lot more detail on this front, and frankly a lot more questions than answers right now. >> even if they did, i don't think having someone come in and kill a bunch of people would be justified. jo ling kent, thank you very much. tom w

from cherokee county, long traveled roughly 30 miles to atlanta and at two separate massage spas shot down four more people, all asian women. according to a local korean newspaper, the victim at the aroma therapy spa opened the door thinking long was a customer, but he opened fire, and she was shot dead. >> he did frequent those two locations. >> reporter: atlanta police say it's not clear if the killer targeted specific people. the investigation into a possible hate crime, is that still on the table? >> our investigation is looking at everything. so nothing is off the table for our investigation. >> reporter: there's been a national backlash against the way cherokee county law enforcement initially pointed to long's motive. >> he has some -- some issues. potentially sexual addiction. >> reporter: social media also jumped on how captain jay baker framed the killer's mindset. >> and yesterday was a really bad day for him. this is what he did. >> reporter: making matters worse, baker's anti-asian facebook post last year promoting t-shirts with the message "covid-19: imported virus from

certainly we thank the state patrol, cherokee county and chris county where the suspect was apprehendedprehension of this suspect. i will now turn it over to chief bryant to share additional information and we will hear from our other law enforcement representatives to share more details on what happened on yesterday and where we stand today. >> thank you, madam mayor. we will present in the order -- in a chronological order so we can better inform you how things played out. we'll start off with sheriff from cherokee county sheriff and it will go to me. we both have our investigator leads that could go into more details as a result of what happened and what transpired through the investigation. i think that it is important that we first acknowledge the fact i know that many -- we've received a number of calls about is this a hate crime? we are still early in this investigation so we cannot make that determination at this moment. again, we're very early in this investigation even though we have made an arrest, there is still a lot more work to be done. so with that being said i just want

in the city just north in cherokee county and two hours south in chris county, police say a suspect inherokee county has been apprehended. a lot to cover. with all that let's hand it over the chris in prime time. >> picking up opt reporting. >> authorities in the area don't believe this is a coincidence. it does seem as though there's some kind of connection. the question, is what? is it opportunity or bias? we'll pick up the story and monitor during our hour. anderson, thank you. i am chris cuomo, and welcome to "prime time" eight people killed now in a series of three shootings at spas in atlanta. at least four of the victims are asian women. the question of course is were they targeted? one suspect has just been app apprehended. when we get more information we'll bring it to you. from that story to absolute bias. democrats have to see and deal with this absolute bias and what they're going to get from the other side of the aisle. why am i saying this? the media is all atwitter, literally and figuratively that mitch mcconnell, whied some new -- issued some new threat. here it is. >>

the shootings took place north of atlanta in cherokee county and inside the city.rned that four of the victims are of korean ethnicity. the suspect in the cherokee county shooting, 21-year-old robert aaron long, was taken into custody just hours after the killings. atlanta police say video evidence suggests he's likely also the suspect in the other two shootings. >>> coronavirus strains first found in california are now officially being called variants of concern according to the centers for disease control and prevention. it comes as cases are starting to tick up in several states, although national case numbers are still down overall. two states, michigan and minnesota, have seen cases rise by 40% in the space of just seven days. on a more positive note, though, america's vaccine rollout is accelerating, almost 12% of the population, about 39 million people are now fully vaccinated, but in europe the vaccine rollout is a very different story. nick watt has the details. >> thousands of people are dying across the eu every day. we have authorized four highly effect

the first of these shootings took place in cherokee county, we are told. that's northwest of atlanta. there, four people were killed. around two hours later, there were two separate shootings at two separate spa facilities in the buckhead area of atlanta. in the cherokee county shooting, that's the first one that took place, police say that they have arrested a shooting suspect, a 21-year-old man. he has been named by some local media. we have seen a picture of that man, but we have not directly confirm the identity yet with the atlanta police so we will not report it. but as you can see, they didn't have surveillance camera footage from the cherokee county spa facility and that is why they were able to track down a vehicle they believe was being driven by the shooter. interestingly, sean, they say the arrest took place some 150 miles south of atlanta. so if these shootings are connected and that is still only a theory, but if they are connected it would appear the shooter travel from somewhere north of atlanta in cherokee county into the city itself and t

the suspect has been named as 21—year—old robert aaron long, who lives in cherokee county. us on bbc news, still to come: realistic — attractive but artifical — the next breed of robots that could be indistinguishable from their human creators. today we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter... cheering and applause more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision. all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a chance for the christian democratsl of the west, offering i reunification as quickly as possible, and that's. what the voters wanted. this is bbc world news, our main headline: the eu's medical regulator remains "convinced" astrazeneca's vaccine is safe — despite more countries suspending roll— out of the covid jab. brazil marks a record number of covid deaths — as medics in several cities cal

so, for the cherokee county sheriff's department to say, you know what? race wasn't a factor according to the shooter. well, boy, that is a convenient thing for the shooter to say. and maybe, the evidence will play out to be the case, chris, at the end of the day, that it it was not. and that's why it's important for the investigation to unfold. for a deep dive to happen. the guy's social media. we know that he has a history. well, what is that history? let's not race to figure out that this wasn't racially motivated until we actually look at all the evidence. >> and, congressman, there is obviously a sort of larger issue here that strikes me about, a, the sort of rhetorical environment that has been created in the country. particularly, over the last year of the pandemic. particularly, as -- as people like congressman roy want to rail against the ruling party of china. but also, just the data and -- and -- and -- and getting a sense of what, exactly, we are seeing. what do you see as the challenges at least in terms of federal policy? >> at the hearing t

one in cherokee county, one directly in front of us and one behind us in atlanta. we've seen more and more people in the community come up to these locations bringing flowers. you can tell how much this has shane the atlanta community that this violence happened in such a short span of time. what investigators are learning by pittsburghing to the suspect that 21-year-old robert aaron long tells them he did commit the shootings that he perhaps was motivated by targeting places that he felt were temptations for his sexual addiction and not necessarily a racially motivated act. cnn has spoken to a former roommate of long who told us they had spent time in a transition house together. that long had spent time in rehab for sexual addiction. so, a lot to go through there, as far as investigators' work is concerned. like you said, this is not being called a hate crime right now. especially what law enforcement have just said about his potential motivations. but the fact still remains that the majority of the victims are women of asian decescent. and that is in the broader

now, in cherokee county, that is the first one that took place.ice say they have arrested a shooting suspect, a 21-year-old man. he has been named by some local media. we have seen a picture of that man, but we have not directly confirmed the identity yet with the atlanta police. you can see that they did have surveillance camera footage from the cherokee county staff facility and that is why they were able to track down a vehicle that they believe was being driven by the shooter. interestingly, sean, they say that arrests took place some 15. so, if the shootings aren't connected and that is still only a theory, but if they are connected, it would appear that the shooter traveled from somewhere north of atlanta in cherokee county into the city of atlanta itself and then south. and as we say, the top line here, sean, 8 people dead, all that what we believe are asian-owned spas. police say at the moment that they do not know at this point if the three shootings are connected and they do not know if it speaks to an actual motive in any way. sean? >>

long remains behind bars without bond in a cherokee county jail. in a statement his attorney says the alleged shooter waived his right to a first appearance. some u.s. cities have ramped up patrolling areas in new york and seattle. the south korean consulate in atlanta issuing warnings for koreans to take extra caution due to the attacks. >> i am very cautious. i am more concerned about my niece and my nephew and of course my parents, who are elderly. i tell them call me, i'll run the errands for you. >> reporter: that is a reality for so many asians. we are learning that fbi director christopher wray has told npr the motive in these shootings does not appear to be racially motivated, but we do want to stress there are investigations underway. atlanta police saying right now nothing is off the table. >> right now i want to get to some more on the truly explosive remarks by republican congressman chip roy about lynchings, china and more. our chief congressional correspondent manu raju is joining us. roy's remarks seemed to fan anti-asian sentiment a

our investigation is separate from the cherokee county's investigation. atlanta police say nothing is off the table when it comes to their investigation into 21 year old robert aaron long, who's accused of killing eight people inside three massage parlors. on tuesday, six will women of asian descent long told police the attacks were not racially motivated, but that claim spots, skepticism and anger. in the asian american community, which has seen an uptick in violence during the covid-19 pandemic. president biden and vice president harris will be in atlanta friday. they were supposed to be there to promote the american rescue plan, but they're postponing all political events and will now meet instead. with leaders of the asian american community in los angeles. jonathan hunt fox news here in san francisco. police are stepping up patrols following attacks on asian americans. extra officers will be on duty in chinatown, the richmond district, the sun set visitation valley and san bruno avenue north of visitation valley. police also planned to work with loca

long remains behind bars without bound in a cherokee county jail.a statement his lawyer said the alleged shooter waived his right to a first court appearance. the fear among those in the asian community is palpable, some u.s. cities have ramped up patrolling areas in new york and seattle. the south korean consulate in atlanta issuing warnings for koreans to take extra caution due to the attacks. >> i am very cautious, but i am more concerned about my niece and my nephew and of course my parents, they're elderly. i tell them, don't go out unless you need to, call me, i will run the errands for you. >> and that report was from cnn's amara walker. >>> we're getting some details on those killed in the cherokee county shooting. 33-year-old delaina yaun was one of them. her sister spoke to cnn. >> she was a family-going person, she liked to -- her family came first. everything was her family. she had such a wonderful, happy, upbeat personality. we were planning the summer and doing some fun activities and now i don't get to do that with her and it's extre

our investigation is separate from the cherokee county's investigation. our investigation is slightly different. it's just very important, to let you know that we are not done. in most cases of homicides, we don't have a quick apprehension. they're usually a lengthy investigation, especially when it involves multiple victims. so, again, we're still working very diligently to ascertain all the facts so we can have a successful prosecution. our investigation is looking at everything, so nothing is off the table for our investigation. >> wolf, i can tell you that deputy chief has a long history in terms of investigations. he used to lead the homicide unit here in atlanta. the tone was quite different today than it was yesterday. there's been fallout from that news conference that happened yesterday. captain jay baker, speaking yesterday. a lot of blowback in term of the suspect having a bad day. we have learned within the last hour from the cherokee county sheriff's department that he has been removed as being spokesperson on this investigation due to the co

i want to begin our coverage with natasha chen from cherokee county. >> reporter: good morning. the suspect is being held in custody and it could be as early as today he could be arraigned. now, right now the fbi is still investigating a motive here, but in the meantime he's been charged with eight counts of murder across two counties. this morning authorities are investigating why a suspected gunman killed eight people in three atlanta area spas and whether the massacre that left six women dead can be prosecuted as a hate crime. it started around 5:00 p.m. in the spa in atlanta and left three people dead. >> do you have a description of him, ma'am? >> reporter: that desperate 911 call came from gold massage spa 30 miles from first shooting and three asian women were killed there. >> some guy came in and took the gun and a lady got hurt. i think. everybody is scared so they're hiding. >> reporter: across the street at aromatherapy spa, another asian woman killed. atlanta law enforcement is withholding the names of victims but in cherokee county, police confirmed the names of the

the names of the four people murdered in suburban and cherokee county by the same mass murderer had already been released. the two words that appear in each entry in today's list of the four victims released by the fulton county medical examiner are asian and female. the first name in the list of four names released today is soon chung park. she was 74 years old. she is now case number 0703, and her cause of death is listed as gunshot wound of head. that is the same cause of death listed in case numbers 0704, hyun jung grant who was 51 years old, and that is the same cause of death listed in case number 0706 yong yue who was 63 years old. case number 0705 is kim who was 69 years old. her cause of death is listed as gunshot wounds of chest. a medical examiner's report is the coldest document you will ever read. every word is chilling. it is the document that reduces a life of 74 years to a case number. it describes causes of death with a chilling clinical precision. the coldness of a medical examiners report is the documentary mirror of a mass murderer's coldness. the old phrase, cold-bloode

we're told there could be a statement from the cherokee county sheriff's department about that statement sometime soon. to go into this, though, and i also want to tell you there's massive amounts of video surveillance that's throughout this area and maybe just maybe the atlanta police department is going to share how they were able to track some of his movements throughout this area. we do know they got a heads-up from cherokee about the vehicle they were looking for but there are so many parts of this investigation that we still have not clearly found out as investigators are really digging down into what exactly happened, brianna. >> ryan young, thank you so much. >>> and still ahead, i'll be speaking to the family of delania yuan, who was killed. >>> plus house minority leader kevin mccarthy tries to rewrite history and claim that he never backed trump's efforts to overturn the election. you have to see his exchange with our cnn reporter on the hill. >>> and fbi just released new video of some of the most egregious attacks on police during the capitol riots. ♪ hi, i'm a new customer

in a press conference wednesday, cherokee county sheriff's department spokesperson captain jay baker said 21-year-old robert aaron long's killing spree was not racially motivated and instead stemmed from his sex addiction. >> and he was pretty much at the end of his rope. it was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. amy: california democratic congressmember ted lieu tweeted in response --an "all of us have experienced bad days. but we don't go to three asian businesses and shoot up asian employees." congressmember lieu says he does not have confidence in the cherokee county sheriff's department and called on the fbi to conduct its own independent investigation. this comes as buzzfeed news reports captain baker posted racist, anti-chinese images and comments on social media in 2020. since tuesday's attack, memorials for the victims have been held nationwide. after headlines, we will have the latest on the georgia attacks and rising hate crimes against asian-americans with dr. connie wun, co-founder of the organization aapi women lead. the house voted wednesday to reauthori

the suspect is 21-year-old robert aaron long of cherokee county, north of atlanta. uth georgia last night in crisp county and spotted driving on i-75. investigators say late yesterday afternoon, long walks into youngs massage in cherokee county and killing three women and one man. two people witness itted according to the captain jay baker and baker says there is surveillance video here and also of the crime scenes in atlanta. >> well, we had really good information about his vehicle and, of course, from what i understand they were comparing the images of the suspect and his vehicle and tag information and all that with what they have down there, and that is how we came to the conclusion he is a suspect. >> reporter: it's a drive of about 30 miles south to atlanta and detectives believe robert aaron long then drove to atlanta and went into two massage spas across the street from one another. they say long shot and killed three women at gold's spa and one woman at aromatherapy. marcell works at a nearby police and rodney bryant, the police chief, was at the scene moni

that's in cherokee county. the first shooting happened there. we understand while law enforcement working that scene, they got a call less than an hour later or so that he had come clear 45 minutes down, targeted these locations across the street, feet away from each other. by the time he was apprehended, he was about 2 1/2 hours south of where that first shooting took place, where that initial shooting took place. you heard law enforcement talk about the fact that it took a tremendous amount of coordination to bring him to justice. they were able to get his family's cooperation, which was a major factor. also that georgia state troopers were able to get into place, were able to track him down as he drove and perform what's called a pit maneuver in order to stop him and take him into custody without incident, really it's remarkable when you think about that coordination, stopping him before he potentially committed similar crimes. >> frank, i want to play something that we heard from the sheriff of cherokee county, georgia. this is sheriff frank

to the cherokee county sheriff now, frank reynolds as promised. sheriff, i thank you for your time the investigators say it's too early to see if this was a hate crime. how do you go about investigating that when do you think you can make a determination? >> thank you, shepherd first let me say our hearts and prayers go out to the families, victims, asian community we're deeply saddened and troubled by this event the investigation is still going on obviously events of yesterday have us all rattled but i just want to praise the cooperation with the atlanta police department, the crisp county sheriff and sheriff's office and our partners at the fbi. this was a collaborative effort and when this first kicked off our goal was to identify the person, track him down and we were successful in doing that with the community support and media and social media still ongoing. we still have forensic evidence we have to look at, cell phones, computers, interviews with other people i have watched the entire interview with the suspect and he does make a full conf

that's in addition to the four people killed here at a spa location in cherokee county. of the four people here that's 33-year-old yaun, 49-year-old ton, and 44-year-old fung. i want to mention that we did speak with the husband of delaina yaun killed in cherokee county. it was a difficult conversation, an interview held in spanish. he said he and his wife had gone to the spa for a massage that they were happy that she had just come from work and of course did not expect this. he said about an hour in almost at the end he started to hear shots and he started to think that it might have been in the room where his wife was. so very emotional. all these families right now, just reeling from the trauma of this. and also dealing with why this happened and of course the community is asking questions as you mentioned the majority of the victims were women and six of the seven women were asian. and so the question is, how is this being handled? will it be considered a hate crime? that's something investigators are looking into. here's someone we talked to about the way the suspe

but here in cherokee county, the names of the four people killed at the spa location here, they have been released. here they are. deelaina yan. paul andre michaels. 49-year-old xiaojie tan and daoyoue feng. the district attorney's office announced a statement saig they'll be meet with the impacted families. the district attorney recognizes the terror in the asian-american community and they'll work to bring justice for the victims here. now at the same time, we are dealing with a situation, the cherokee county sheriff's office where the spokesperson, captain jay baker, came under fire for comments made earlier in the week at a press conference describing the suspect as having had a bad day. and this is what happened. he has now been removed from that -- serving that role just for this case. he is still with the sheriff's office. the sheriff released a statement, too, saying that baker's words were not intended to disrespect the victims or the tragedy of the situation, jim and poppy. >> natasha, thank you for that reporting. jeff, to you as well. we'll be watching the president and v

here in cherokee county, the names of the deceased have been released by authorities. they range in age from 30 to in their 50s. so this is all very, very difficult for families and multiple counties. and i have to say, we played that 911 call. you could tell from two different spas. and the disturbing part is how there was sort of a barrier in communication, in understanding how urgent the situation was with one woman hiding and trying to whisper and the other being asked to repeat herself so that dispatchers could get what was happening exactly. >> natasha, thank you for the reporting this morning. >>> in terms of the official motive, that has still not been called, if you will, by police for these heinous killings in and around georgia. it is only deepening fears of rising anti-asian hate and violence in the united states. this year alone there's been a disturbing trend of this across the asian community. in new york city, there were at least ten suspected anti-asian hate crimes committed between january 1st and march 14th of this year. >> in san francisco, police sa

atlanta police then dispatching officers to check nearby similar businesses. >> this started up in cherokee county, my understanding they shot up a spa there. they spot up two spas here in zone two, so we need to make sure if we have any asian spas, we need to be checking on them. >> reporter: police capture long after a brief pursuit. this morning investigators say it's extremely likely he's connected to all three shootings. six of the eight victims are of asian descent. authorities are trying to determine a motive and whether race played a role. racially motivated attacks targeting asian-americans have been on the rice nationwide. overnight the new york city police department's counterterrorism unit says it's deploying assets to our great asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution. police in oakland, california, the scene of several recent attacks on asians say they are monitoring the georgia shootings. an advocacy group saying, this latest attack will only exacerbate the fear and pain that the asian-american community continues to endure. police did not release the victims

well, this started in cherokee county which is just north of atlanta. and they discovered five people that had been shot. two died at the scene and two died later in hospital and the fifth was injured. about an hour later the police were called to a suspected robbery in the city of atlanta at another massage parlour. there they found three people dead and they were told of a shooting across the road at yet another spa, another massage parlour where one person had been killed. a total of eight people have lost their lives and as you said, four of those, for women are believed to be asian. we understand at least two others from the first shooting were white, a man and a woman. the police say that the is video evidence to suggest that the shootings were indeed connected. the man who was arrested was actually held after a police chase. he was apparently identified, his vehicle was identified through security camera footage from the first shooting and he was arrested about two hours south of atlanta so quite a distance away. again, she said, he has been name

today's georgia's cherokee county official with a post erased in which he shared a t-shirt blaming china for the coronavirus saying the suspects in the shooting just had a bad day. >> he does claim it was not racially motivated. i spoke with investigators that, yes, he understood the gravity of it and was pretty much fed up, at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> this was a really bad day for the victims too. >> today, celebrities are speaking out. testifying on capitol hill after speaking to nbc. >> this man targeted places where asian-americans were working. you don't have to peal the layers back far. >> i'll speak to activist coming up and with president biden and vice president harris. the president has addressed the shootings on wednesday. >> i know americans are very concerned. as you know, i've been speaking about brutality against asian-americans for months and i thinks it very, very trouble some. >> joining me now from atlanta, nbc news correspondent and in new york, attorney and legal contributor. welcome. you've been follo

are new questions this morning about how the case is being handled after this comment from a cherokee county georgia law enforcement officer. >> he understood the gravity of it, and he was pretty much fed up. had been at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> also developing this morning, a growing rift between the white house and russia. the kremlin reacting to president biden's reaction of vladimir putin as a killer. recalling its ambassador to the u.s. while labeling president biden's comments as unprecedented. we have a live report from moscow coming up in just a moment. >>> we're going to start with the situation in georgia and the fear being held in the asian-american community. joining us, georgia state representative bea nguyen, the first vietnamese-american to be elected to the georgia statehouse. we were speaking to lisa ling. she said too often when there are killings like this, we focus on the suspect, on the shooter. we don't ask what should be the first question which is, tell me about the victims. how are the victims? how are