Massage Spa Shootings In Georgia Leave 8 Dead, Including 6 Women Of Asian Descent

Police on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of opening fire at three massage spas in northern Georgia hours earlier, killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, was apprehended by law enforcement officials while driving to Florida, where he may have planned to carry out additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday during a news conference. Police recovered a 9 mm handgun during the traffic stop.

This could have been significantly worse, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during the news conference. It is very likely that there would have been more victims.

Law enforcement officials said Long appears to have acted alone and that it was too early to determine whether the shootings were racially motivated.

Long told investigators he has sexual addiction issues and targeted the spas in an attempt to take out that temptation, Cherokee County Sheriffs Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday.

They interviewed him this morning and they got that impression that ... he understood the gravity of it, Baker said. He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.

Watch the full news conference below:

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