The Fulton County District Attorney said on Tuesday that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of fatally shooting eight people in spas near the Atlanta area, CNN reports. Six of the victims were Asian women.
Long was indicted Tuesday on domestic terror and murder charges. Prosecutors say they will also pursue hate crime charges. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed notice with the Fulton Superior Court on Tuesday. Willis stated in the court filing that Long targeted four of the Asian women because of their race, national origin and gender, according to Reuters.
Willis said the Atlanta shootings forced her to reconsider comments she made to voters last year about the death penalty.
“I, along with my staff, have made a determination that this office will seek the death penalty,” Willis said, according to CNN. “Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek it. And at that time I did not.”
Long has been officially indicted with four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of domestic terrorism in Fulton County, according to USA Today.
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The indictments are specific to the fatal shootings of four people at two Atlanta-area spas: Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
Fulton County prosecutors will also pursue enhanced hate crime charges. If convicted, Long could face additional penalties under a new Georgia hate crime law that went into effect last June.
The law provides sentencing guidelines for any person convicted of targeting a victim based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Long has also been indicted in Cherokee County for the alleged murder of Delaina Ashley Yaun, age 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44.
There he faces “four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, 11 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder and aggravated assault, and aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and criminal damage to property in the first degree,” according to CNN.
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