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Atlanta spa shootings: NYPD amps up presence in Asian communities as Robert Aaron Long held over killings

'While there is no known nexus to #NYC we will be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution,' the department’s counterterrorism bureau tweeted

Following the massage parlor shootings that took place on Tuesday at three Atlanta-area spas leaving eight people dead, the NYPD has amped up its presence in Asian communities across the city. According to the latest reports, NYPD said that officers from the NYPD Critical Response Command were sent to areas such as Flushing, Sunset Park and Chinatown in Manhattan. 

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The department’s counterterrorism bureau took to Twitter to share a statement saying that they were "monitoring" the shootings at three businesses in Atlanta and a suburb, which were believed to have been carried out by 21-year-old suspect Robert Aaron Long. "#NYPDCT is monitoring the shooting of Asian Americans in Georgia. While there is no known nexus to #NYC we will be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution.  #SeeSomethingSaySomething" 

A suspect was taken into custody in connection with one of the three shootings, and Atlanta police say video evidence also "suggests that it is extremely likely" he is also the suspect in the other two shootings. Officials have not yet determined a motive for the shootings but the investigation is ongoing.The victims in the Acworth shooting were two Asian women, a white woman and a white man. The fifth victim was a Hispanic man who was injured and taken to the hospital. All four victims of the Atlanta shootings appeared to be Asian women, police told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it appears all the victims are female and "it appears that they may be Asian."

Council Speaker Corey Johnson took to Twitter to call out the attacks that seem to be part of a wave of anti-Asian crimes across the nation, including in the Big Apple. "This is a horrific crime at a time when we’re already seeing a spike in anti-Asian violence. We must stand up for our sisters and brothers in the AAPI community. My heart goes out to the families of the victims. #StopAsianHate."

The shootings are the latest incident in the recent spike in hate incidents against Asians. A report released on Tuesday from the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center said it received 3,795 firsthand accounts of hate incidents against Asians nationwide from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021. About 45% of the cases occurred in California and 14% in New York, according to the report. "The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face," according to the report. 

Last month, NYPD arrested a man who was allegedly caught on camera attacking an Asian American woman. 

In another instance that took place at a subway station on Manhattan's Lower East Side around 9 pm last Tuesday, March 9, 2021, a construction worker named Teoh Ming Soon became the victim of an unprovoked attack. Soon was attacked by the assailant after he walked past the suspect. A clip of the incident shows Soon being punched and pushed, followed by being punched in the eye and elbowed in the mouth repeatedly.