[ad_1]
A deputy sheriff in Georgia, who has been the main conduit for news about the murderous rampage at three Atlanta-area massage companies, was criticized Wednesday for saying Tuesday “was a very bad day” for the suspect and for anti-Asian Facebook posts he made last year.
At a press conference, Deputy Capt.Jay Baker, spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, discussed the state of mind of the man accused of eight counts of murder during Tuesday’s shooting. He said the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Ga., Understood the gravity of his actions when questioned by investigators on Wednesday morning.
“He had had enough and had been a bit at the end of his rope,” said Captain Baker. “Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and he did.”
The comments were circulated widely on social media, with critics calling them callous and pointing to the Facebook posts of March 30 and April 2 of last year by Captain Baker, in which he was promoting sales of an anti-Asian t-shirt. The shirts, echoing the rhetoric of President Donald J. Trump, called the coronavirus a “virus imported from Chy-na.”
“Place your order while they last,” Captain Baker wrote at the time in one of the posts. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
News outlets Buzzfeed and The Daily Beast both ran stories about the captain’s comments and the Facebook post on Wednesday, and actress Arden Cho and others condemned them on social media.
“The cop says it’s not a hate crime, he’s just having a bad day,” Ms. Cho written on twitter. “Oh ok… NO. It’s because you’re a racist Jay Baker too.
[ad_2]
Source link