Death penalty sought in Atlanta killings

The man accused of killing eight people, including six Asian women, in a spree targeting three Atlanta-area spas was indicted on Tuesday on murder charges in two Georgia counties, with prosecutors planning to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against the gunman.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed notice she intends to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Robert Aaron Long, 22, for the mass shootings in Atlanta and its suburbs.

In a court filing, Willis said Long selected his targets because of their "actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender". The case against Long will be the first test of the hate crimes law passed by the Georgia legislature last year.

Long was indicted on four counts of murder in the March 16 shootings, along with four counts of felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of domestic terrorism, the Fulton indictment stated.

In Cherokee county, Long was also indicted on four counts of murder, along with four counts of felony murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, 11 counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and criminal damage to property in the first degree, the indictment said.

Step forward

"Today we have taken another step forward in seeking justice for the victims of this crime and for their family members," Shannon Wallace, Cherokee County's district attorney, said in a statement.

Long, who is white, told authorities his actions were not racially motivated and he had a "sexual addiction".

Authorities said Long shot five people, killing four, at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, Georgia, shortly before 5 pm on March 16.Three of those killed were women and two were of Asian descent.

The four who died are Ashley Yaun, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Xiaojie Tan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44.

About an hour later, Long shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police said. Yong Ae Yue, 63, Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, were killed. All of the victims were women of Asian descent.

Long's parents alerted the police that they believed their son might be the suspect, and police were able to track Long's phone. They arrested him on the night of the shootings.

A law enforcement source said the suspect had been kicked out of the house by his family due to his sexual addiction, which included spending hours watching pornography online, CNN reported.

Authorities said Long was "having a bad day" when he decided to open fire on March 16.

Those statements spurred outrage and condemnation.

"I am relieved that this will be treated as a hate crime－to acknowledge that the victims were targeted because of their race is a necessary measure that will help Asians living in this country feel seen and heard and that this decision also recognizes that we can't divorce gender from race," Bee Nguyen, Georgia state Representative, told CNN.

Agencies contributed to this story.