Officer who said shooter had a 'bad day' was selling a racist T-shirt blaming China for COVID-19

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

Captain Jay Baker had a controversial Facebook page that may reveal his beliefs.

Why do police find it so hard to label a racist attack a hate crime? The other question that might be asked: What do you do if the investigator of a hate attack harbors racist views, himself? 

The day following a shooting spree in Georgia that killed eight people -- six of them Asian American women -- Captain Jay Baker, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office spokesperson, said that the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, "was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope" and Tuesday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did."

At the Wednesday press conference about the shootings, Baker said it was too early to say if the suspect was motivated by race, but added that the suspect told officials he had sex addiction issues and targeted the businesses because he wanted to “take out that temptation.”

AAPI Twitter blew up. Baker's comments were insensitive to the victims and their families and seemed to brush off the deadly attacks on Asian Americans.

And ... now we know why Baker said what he said.

In a series of Facebook posts, Baker shared photos of T-shirts with the slogan, “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.” “Love my shirt,” Baker wrote in one April 2020 post. “Get yours while they last.”

“Place your order while they last,” Baker wrote in another post in March 2020, alongside a smiley face emoji.

The Cherokee Sheriff's Office didn't respond to media requests about the Facebook post, which has been deleted.

And now, you know the rest of the story. Stay tuned.

Word of caution: This post has opinion weaved into it. The editor recommends that you should read several sources to form an opinion of their own.

Six Asian American women killed in Atlanta shootings

The investigation continued at one of the crime scenes last night.

UPDATED March 17, 5:30 P.M. PST to name four of the victims.

Six of the eight people shot to death in the Atlanta area were  Asian women, but police hesitate to say the killings were racially motivated.

The fatal shootings occurred at three different massage parlors Tuesday evening, one after the other. Authorities believe the suspect in custody was the same shooter at the three locations.

The three attacks happened during a year that is seeing an alarming rise in violence  directed against Asian Americans. Authorities haven't determined a motive or if the killings were racially motivated. 

The suspect in custody has been identified as Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year old white man, of Woodstock, Ga., He was captured in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, after authorities released a surveillance image of a suspect.

"The reported shootings of multiple Asian American women today in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy — for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the Asian American community, which has been reeling from high levels of racist attacks over the course of the past year," stated Stop AAPI Hate, a community advocaccy group that has been collecting reports of violence against AAPI. 

"This latest attack will only exacerbate the fear and pain that the Asian American community continues to endure," the statement concluded.

For the period of March 19, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021, the group has received 3,795 reports of harassment, bullying, vandalism or assaults against AAPI, according to the most recent report from #StopAAPIHate. The reports, represent only a fraction of all the incidents of hate, says the report.

The first Georgia shooting was around 5 p.m.. at Young's Asian Massage in Acworth, northwest of Atlanta, where five people were shot. The victims were Delaina Ashley Yuan, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Yan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44. A 30-year-old Hispanic man was wounded and remains in the hospital.

About an hour later, a shooting was reported about 30 miles away at Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta where three women were found dead. While investigating that shooting, another call of shots fired across the street at the Aroma Therapy Spa, where they found another woman shot dead. The four victims were identified as Asian but their names are being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Long was arrested around 8:30 p.m. after a police chase 150 miles south of Atlanta.

Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the Atlanta shootings.

The reaction on AAPI Twitter was busy expressing a mixture of fear, sadness and anger with the hashtags  #StopAsianHate and #AsianLivesMatter trending.

On Thursday, March 18, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans at 10 a.m. EST.

Last week President Biden called out the haters in his nationwide speech about the federal response to the pandemic. “It’s wrong. It’s un-American. And it must stop,” he said about the violence against Asian Americans.