New top story from Time: Atlanta Spa Shooter Signs Plea Deal, Pleads Guilty to 4 Killings

https://ift.tt/3BVTW2X

(CANTON, Ga.) — A Georgia man accused of killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was pleading guilty in Cherokee County on Tuesday, hoping for a sentence of life without parole to the first four of the shooting deaths.

Robert Aaron Long still faces the death penalty if convicted in four more shooting deaths in Atlanta, where he faces charges of domestic terrorism with a hate crime enhancement in addition to murder. Long is white and six of the victims were women of Asian descent.

Long walked through the massage business in Woodstock “shooting anyone and everyone he saw,” District Attorney Shannon Wallace said.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Massage Business Shootings — Crisp County Sheriff’s Office—APRobert Aaron Long in a March 16 booking photo.

A judge was hearing a prosecutor describe details of his crimes. The prosecutor said the 22-year-old defendant has signed a plea deal admitting to all of the charges in Cherokee County, where he was accused of malice murder, felony murder, attempt to commit murder and aggravated assault.

Police have said the attacks began when Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage just before 5 p.m. on March 16, 2020. He also shot and wounded a fifth person, they say. Long then drove south to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police have said. All of the Atlanta victims were women of Asian descent.

Those killed at the Cherokee County spa were: Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54. The Atlanta victims were: Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

Long is scheduled to appear again next month in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani Willis filed notice that she intends to seek a hate crime sentence enhancement along with the death penalty, based on the actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender of the four women killed in Atlanta.

Georgia’s new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it’s motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty. The 19-count Fulton County indictment includes charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and domestic terrorism.

Police said that after the shootings at the two Atlanta spas, Long got back into his car and headed south.

By then, Long’s parents had called authorities to help after recognizing their son in still images from security video that the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media. His parents were already tracking his movements through an application on his phone, the prosecutor said, and that enabled authorities to track their son down Interstate 75. State troopers and sheriff’s deputies spotted his SUV, and one of them forced Long to spin to a stop by bumping his vehicle. Long then surrendered to authorities in rural Crisp County, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

Long told police his attack was not racially motivated, and a Cherokee sheriff’s spokesman said it did not appear to be a hate crime, prompting widespread skepticism and outrage.

“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places, and it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Cherokee sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker initially told reporters.

Baker also drew criticism for saying Long had “a really bad day,” and was removed from the case.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House and a frequent advocate for women and communities of color, said the shootings appeared to be at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia.” And Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said that regardless of the shooter’s motivation, “it is unacceptable, it is hateful and it has to stop.”

Comments

The Future of Slow Streets

The Future of Slow Streets By Eillie Anzilotti Over the past two years, Slow Streets have shown how simple designs that prioritize people can transform streets. Suddenly, streets across San Francisco filled with the sounds of kids playing and neighbors chatting. They filled with people on bicycles and people rolling in wheelchairs; with joggers and dog-walkers. The streets came to life. Initially, the SFMTA introduced Slow Streets as an emergency response to COVID-19. People needed space for recreating at a safe distance outdoors. And with Muni service reduced or suspended at the time, people needed ways to travel to essential destinations on foot or bike. To quickly meet these early pandemic needs, we implemented Slow Streets with simple signs and barricades. Over time, it became clear that Slow Streets served an even larger purpose. They became places for communities to come together. Neighbors organized events like scavenger hunts and Trick or Treat parties around their local Sl...

Transit Lanes Keep Muni Moving on Mission Street in SoMa

Transit Lanes Keep Muni Moving on Mission Street in SoMa By Erin McMillan The full-time transit lanes on Mission Street downtown installed as a temporary emergency measure during the pandemic will be made permanent. The first of the city’s Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes to get permanent authorization, they were unanimously approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors at their June 15, 2021 meeting. This shows how a quick-build project can be installed, evaluated, and refined in a relatively short amount of time. Thousands of daily riders have already felt the impact of the full-time transit lanes since they were first temporarily installed last summer. Now, riders of the 14 Mission, 14R Mission Rapid, and many SamTrans and Golden Gate Transit customers will continue to benefit from the transit time savings we have seen with the implementation of these lanes. Mission Street in SoMa has been a major transit corridor for years, serving regional commuter...

New top story from Time: After Trump Denies Knowledge of Reported Russian Bounties on U.S. Soldiers, Lawmakers From Both Parties Demand Answers

https://ift.tt/31rSR2S Leaders of both parties pressed on Sunday for answers from the White House about reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had put bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and that the U.S. had taken no action in response. Democrats called for hearings to be held. In his first comment on the matter, President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that “nobody briefed or told me” about the “so-called attacks,” a comment that his former national security adviser termed “remarkable.” The New York Times reported Friday on the alleged actions by Russian military intelligence — paying Taliban-linked militias to kill American and British troops — and that Trump and other top White House officials had been briefed on the matter months ago. Major elements were also reported by the Washington Post. In a follow-up story Sunday, the Times wrote that commandos and spies on the ground in Afghanistan had reported their findings to superiors in January and that they had ...

4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward

4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward By Bonnie Jean von Krogh A new transit lane was installed last week on 4th Street in SoMA as part of the previously approved 4th Street Transit Improvement Project . As the first transit lane put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, this change will help protect Muni passengers as congestion returns to city streets. Transit lanes allow buses to complete trips in less time and turn around back into service more quickly. That means with our limited resources, we can provide more Muni service with the same number of buses, reducing crowding and maintaining better physical distancing onboard. The benefits that transit lanes provide – saving time and avoiding congestion – have become critically important during COVID-19 to protect the health of Muni passengers. Physical distancing requirements mean that Muni’s passenger capacity is cut in a third from pre-COVID levels. When buses ...

Muni Service Changes Starting June 13

Muni Service Changes Starting June 13 By Mariana Maguire Beginning Saturday, June 13, the SFMTA will increase Muni service and frequency, add select routes into service and extend some current routes to continue to support essential trips. A key goal of these service increases is to support the community’s economic recovery by providing more connections to neighborhood commercial districts as businesses begin to reopen. We are also adding more frequent service on targeted routes to help address crowding and improve onboard physical distancing. These service changes will improve transit access through Chinatown, SoMa and the Excelsior neighborhoods, identified by the Muni’s Service Equity Strategy as neighborhoods that rely on transit service the most based on the percentage of households with low incomes, private vehicle ownership and race and ethnicity demographics. Although Muni continues to be for essential trips only, many people have no choice but to use transit to r...

New top story from Time: Joe Biden Formally Nominated by Democrats to Run Against President Trump

https://ift.tt/31atd1S (NEW YORK) — Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden as their 2020 presidential nominee Tuesday night, as party officials and activists from across the nation gave the former vice president their overwhelming support during his party’s all-virtual national convention. The moment marked a political high point for Biden, who had sought the presidency twice before and is now cemented as the embodiment of Democrats’ desperate desire to defeat President Donald Trump this fall. The roll call of convention delegates formalized what has been clear for months since Biden took the lead in the primary elections’ chase for the nomination. It came as he worked to demonstrate the breadth of his coalition for a second consecutive night, this time blending support from his party’s elders and fresher faces to make the case that he has the experience and energy to repair chaos that Trump has created at home and abroad. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secreta...

Railways allows e-catering facility at selected stations https://ift.tt/2LsUU1b

The Indian Railways on Friday allowed e-catering services to resume at selected railway stations. In a statement, the Railway Ministry said that it will be subject to compliance with all the guidelines on health and safety matters issued by Central and state governments and other authorised agencies under them. The ministry said that it may be noted that IRCTC had written to the Railway Board for the resumption of e catering at selected railway stations.

New Sculptures Light up Van Ness Avenue

New Sculptures Light up Van Ness Avenue By Luis “Loui” Apolonio Light sculpture at Van Ness Avenue and O'Farrell Street Spectators gathered both online and in person to watch new lighting sculptures on Van Ness turned on for the first time on March 31, 2022. The whimsical and brightly colored sculptures located on the new Van Ness BRT boarding platform between Geary and O’Farrell are made of steel with LED lights inside on a timer set to illuminate at night. The lighting event was kicked off with SFMTA Director Jeff Tumlin and MTAB Chair Gwyneth Borden serving as emcees. Mary Chou, Director of Public Arts and Collections at the San Francisco Arts Commission, spoke about the art installation itself, as well as the process for selecting the artist who would be awarded the project. In addition, Maddy Ruvolo, a member of the SFMTA’s Accessible Services team and a recently appointed member of President Biden’s U.S. Access Board, shared the importance of having accessibility as a ...

Looking Back at the Roots of Muni Heritage Day

Looking Back at the Roots of Muni Heritage Day By Jeremy Menzies Muni Heritage Day returns this Saturday, June 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., after a two-year hiatus. This event brings our unique fleet of vintage buses and historic streetcars back on San Francisco streets for free rides. All rides will originate from Steuart Street and Don Chee Way, just outside the SF Railway Museum . In preparation for Saturday’s festivities, we look back at the origins of this event in the 1980s through some newly scanned historic photos. Seen here at the 1983 Trolley Festival, the “Boat Tram” has always been a crowd pleaser. The story of Muni Heritage is intertwined with both that of the F Line and a series of events called “Trolley Festivals”. The inaugural Trolley Festival in 1983 was the first time Muni ran special rail service using a collection of vintage cars from San Francisco and around the world. Today, Muni Heritage carries on this tradition for people to ride vehicles that ar...

Muni Highlights in 2021: More Service to More Destinations

Muni Highlights in 2021: More Service to More Destinations By Jonathan Streeter Our goal for Muni in 2021 was to match the service we offer with the changing travel patterns of an unpredictable era, as San Franciscans grappled with a second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this, we expanded on the core routes that formed the nucleus of our early 2020 pandemic network by adding and improving service in key areas throughout San Francisco. We focused on access in neighborhoods where essential workers live, as well as on adding service in busy corridors and even creating new lines. At the beginning of the year, even with our reduced schedule, 91% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. This included 100% of residents in San Francisco’s neighborhoods identified by the Muni Service Equity Strategy . By summer 2021, we added enough additional service so that 98% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. To the relief of ma...

My precise view

Search This Blog