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The Latest: Police considering if spa attack was hate crime

Last Updated Mar 18, 2021 at 1:30 pm MDT

ATLANTA — The Latest on the Atlanta-area shootings at massage parlours where eight people were killed (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

Atlanta police say “nothing is off the table” in their investigation into the recent massage parlour slayings, including whether the killings were a hate crime.

Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said during a news conference Thursday that investigators believe 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long had visited the two Atlanta massage parlours where four women of Asian descent were killed.

“Our investigation is looking at everything so nothing is off the table for our investigation,” Hampton said.

Four other victims were killed at a spa in suburban Cherokee County shortly before the Atlanta attacks.

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2:35 p.m.

The White House says President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris plan to meet with Asian American community leaders in Georgia in the wake of this week’s deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlours.

The pair were already scheduled to travel Friday to Atlanta to tout the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, but the trip took on new meaning after the shootings.

The visit also comes amid intense debate over voter rights in Georgia.

Authorities have charged 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long with murder in the deaths of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.

The Associated Press