Olivia Munn, LeBron James, Mindy Kaling.Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty; Daniel Boczarski/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty
Celebrities are speaking out after eight people, at least six of whom were Asian women, were killed in shootings across Atlanta-area massage parlors on Tuesday.
Thetragic shootingsculminated in the arrest of 21-year-old suspect Robert Aaron Long, and while authorities have not yet identified a motive, the deadly incident drew more attention to the increased violence against Asians in the United States, with stars speaking out and sharing their outrage over the event.
“The violent attacks and murders against Asians are still happening. Please help us. We need help to be safe in our country. #StopAsianHate. Please,” tweetedOlivia Munn, who has activelyspoken out about anti-Asian violence.
“The targeting of our Asian brothers and sisters is sickening, but not surprising given the normalizing of anti-Asian hate speech in the past year,” saidMindy Kaling. “We have to #StopAsianHate, enough is enough!”
LeBron Jamesaddressed the incident on Twitter, referring to the tragedy as “Senseless and tragic” and calling the suspect a “coward a– young man.”
“My condolences goes out to the families of all the victims and the entire Asian community tonight on what transpired in Atlanta at the Aromatherapy Spa,” he tweeted.
Stop AAPI Hate, a national group that addresses anti-Asian hate in the U.S., reacted to the shootings earlier on Wednesday, writing, “The reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy – for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community — which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Sgt. John Chafee of Atlanta Police Department’s Public Affairs Unit said that Atlanta police officers responded to a “business robbery in progress call” at Gold Spa massage parlor on Tuesday around 5:47 p.m. local time and found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds inside the establishment.
For more details on the deadly Atlanta shootings and its significance for the Asian-American community, listen below to the episode of PEOPLE Every Day.
While police were at the scene, they received reports that shots were being fired at another massage parlor, Fuji Spa, across the street. Upon arrival, they found another woman shot and killed inside, Chafee said.
At this time, investigators are gathering information from both scenes to determine exactly what occurred," Chafee added.
About an hour prior to those two shootings, five people were shot at a spa in Acworth, Ga., about 30 miles north of Atlanta in Cherokee County.
Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while three others were transported to the hospital for their injuries and two of them died, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker told the AP.
Brynn Anderson/AP/Shutterstock
The scene in Atlanta Tuesday night.Brynn Anderson/AP/Shutterstock
Long was arrested in connection with the Acworth shooting after being seen on surveillance footage pulling up to the spa around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, minutes before the shooting, authorities told the AP. It is not known whether Long has been charged in connection with the incident.
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On whether the Atlanta shootings and the Acworth shooting are related, Chafee told PEOPLE, “Video footage from our Video Integration Center places the Cherokee County suspect’s vehicle in the area, around the time of our Piedmont Road shootings.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
