Local leaders react to Atlanta killings

On Wednesday, Robert Aaron Long was charged with killing 8 people in three Atlanta-area spas. Seven of them were women, 6 of Asian descent.

Long told police his killing spree was not motivated by race, but instead claimed to have “sex addiction” and lashed out as what he saw as sources of temptation.

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The violent attack is sending terror through the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community.

In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan was asked about the shootings. “Even if people aren’t targeted, the fear that it generates is really palpable,” said Durkan.

In Washington D.C., Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland of the 10th district spoke out on the House floor.

“Racially motivated violence must be called out for exactly what it is and we must stop making excuses or rebranding it as economic anxiety or sexual addiction,” said Rep. Strickland. “As a woman who is black and Korean, I’m acutely aware of how it feels to be erased or ignored, and how the default position when violence is committed against people of color or women is to defer from confronting the hate that is often the motivation. Words matter, leadership matters.”

As detectives investigate the killings, Strickland believes it still centers around race and told KIRO7, “People forget there is an intersection with sex crimes between racism and misogyny, even if it gets labeled as something else, that we don’t lose sight of what the motivations really are.”

In Bellevue, Police Chief Steve Mylett says hate crime incidents against the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community are down in Bellevue this year. Local law enforcement also knows it can go unreported.

“Any member of our community that has experienced a hate crime, and it doesn’t need to rise to the level of a hate crime, if you are on the receiving end of intimidation, bigotry, we want to know about it,” said Chief Mylett.

Chief Mylett has held virtual townhall meetings with the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community during the pandemic.

In Seattle on Wednesday, Seattle Police Community Resource Officers went to the Chinatown-International District to reach out to residents and business owners to offer support and encourage them to report incidents of hate.

Also in support of the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community, the Seattle Seahawks posted a statement condemning hate and offering support to the victims of the shootings at three Atlanta-area spas.

Cox Media Group