Atlanta-area spa shooting suspect pleads guilty to 4 killings
27 July 2021
Robert Aaron Long, 22, of Georgia, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murder and other charges related to series of deadly spa shootings in Atlanta, AP reports.
The big picture: Long signed a plea deal admitting to all of the charges in Cherokee County, hoping for a life sentence without parole for the first four of the shooting deaths.
- Six of the eight victims in the shootings were Asian women. Long, who is White, told police that the attacks were not "racially motivated."
Background: The attacks started at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County. Two people died at the scene, and three were taken to the hospital, where two of them later died.
- Police said Long then drove south to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women, all of whom were of Asian descent.
What to watch: Long is set to appear in Fulton County next month, where he faces charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and domestic terrorism.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.