By JAMIE STENGLE, Related Press
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas’ police chief mentioned Friday {that a} capturing that injured three ladies in a hair salon within the metropolis’s Koreatown might need been a hate crime as he introduced that it might be linked to 2 different shootings at companies run by Asian Individuals.
Chief Eddie Garcia had beforehand mentioned police did not have any indication the capturing Wednesday at Hair World Salon was motivated by hate, however he mentioned that had modified as of Friday afternoon.
“The likelihood that we’re coping with a violent gunman who’s motivated by hate is chilling and deeply disturbing,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson mentioned in an announcement Friday.
Authorities are nonetheless looking for a person dressed all in black who opened fireplace on the salon, then drove off in a maroon minivan. Garcia mentioned investigators discovered {that a} comparable car was reported to be concerned in two different latest shootings, together with an April 2 drive-by within the space the place the salon is situated. Nobody was injured in both of these shootings.
Political Cartoons
“We’re turning to each resident of town of Dallas to maintain a watch out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia mentioned. “Hate has no place right here.”
“We have to get this individual in custody,” Garcia mentioned.
He mentioned the car was additionally linked to a drive-by capturing on Tuesday about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of the purchasing middle the place Wednesday’s capturing occurred.
Garcia mentioned police can be growing patrols, and so they had been reaching out to different police departments in North Texas to see if there have been any comparable incidents of their space. He mentioned Dallas police have additionally reached out to the FBI to allow them to know of the doable connection.
The three ladies who had been shot on the salon had been taken to a hospital with accidents that weren’t life-threatening.
The daughter of one of many injured ladies mentioned her mom instructed her that the person, whom she didn’t acknowledge, calmly walked in, opened fireplace and left.
John Jun, a founding member of the Dallas-Fort Value chapter of the Korean American Coalition, mentioned he’d hoped that the capturing on the salon was an remoted incident.
“Now we’re slightly extra involved as a result of it looks like they’re concentrating on for certain Asian Individuals and almost definitely Korean American companies within the space,” Jun mentioned.
He mentioned the salon is within the coronary heart of Koreatown, which is in part of town that was reworked within the Eighties from an industrial space to a thriving district with purchasing, eating, markets, medical places of work and salons.
“The individuals are clearly shaken and they’re on the sting proper now,” Jun mentioned.
Anti-Asian violence has risen sharply in recent times. Final yr, six ladies of Asian descent had been among the many eight killed in a capturing at therapeutic massage companies in and close to Atlanta, heightening anger and concern amongst Asian Individuals.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
