Prosecutor indicts suspect in tragic Atlanta shootings: report

WASHINGTON -- A man suspected of killing eight people in a shooting at three Atlanta-area spas was indicted on Tuesday on murder charges while the prosecution says it will also seek hate crime charges, a report said.

The 22-year-old suspect, Robert Aaron Long, was charged with killing the eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in the March 16 attack.

A grand jury in Fulton County indicted the suspect on charges of murder that took place at two day spas in Atalanta, according to an AP report.

A separate grand jury in Cherokee Country will decide on charges of four other murders in the shooting at a spa in that county, the report said, adding the prosecutor seeks hate crime charges, as well as the death penalty.

The shootings prompted strong reactions from Asian-American communities, including Korean-Americans, as four of the victims were women of Korean descent.

President Joe Biden had personally condemned the incident and crimes targeting Asian Americans.

"They've been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed. They've been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed. Documented incidents of hate against Asian Americans have seen a skyrocketing spike over the last year, let alone the ones that happened, never get reported," Biden had said during his visit to Atlanta on March 19. (Yonhap)