The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office announced Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, was arrested at about 8:30 p.m. local time following a chase that led officers into Crisp County — about three hours away from where the first shootings at a massage parlor occurred, according to police who spoke during a brief press conference. Long was transported to the Crisp County Detention Center, police said.
Records searches into Long’s background do not show any prior criminal history.
The FBI is assisting Cherokee County and Atlanta police in this investigation, Kevin Rowson, a spokesman for FBI’s Atlanta office, told NPR.
Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said when officers arrived atYoung’s Asian Massage, two victims were already dead and another three were still alive, local news station 11Alive reported. The wounded were rushed to a local hospital, but two have since died. One of the victims was a man, as is a survivor, officials said.
The names of the four victims killed at Young’s Asian Massage, as well as that of the person who was injured, have not been released by authorities.
About an hour after that shooting, Atlanta police officers were called to respond to a robbery in progress at Gold Spa. Once there, they discovered the bodies of three women who had been fatally shot. Moments later, officers were called to another shooting across the street at a different spa — Aromatherapy Spa — one more woman was found dead of a gunshot wound.