Winchester Officials Denounce Georgia Killings

Winchester MA

23 March, 2021

4:04 PM

Description

WINCHESTER, MA — Winchester officials issued a statement on Thursday about the killing of eight people in several massage parlors in Atlanta, GA, six of the victims were Asian women. The statement is signed by Town Manager Lisa Wong and Police Chief Daniel O'Connell. The statement is below: "We condemn the senseless killings of eight innocent people in Georgia and offer ourcondolences to the families of the victims. Six of the eight victims are Asian Americanwomen, and this is part of a disturbing trend of increased violence against Asianmembers of communities across the country since the beginning of the pandemic.The Town of Winchester and the Winchester Police Department support AsianAmericans, and our fight against racism and xenophobia. The Massachusetts CivilRights Act protects all people against hate crimes, including threats, harassment,violence, and other bias-motivated conduct. Unfortunately we know that hate crimesagainst Asians can go unreported.As leaders in municipal government and the police department, we take ourresponsibility for providing a safe place for all residents seriously. This includespartnering with residents and groups such as the Chinese American Network ofWinchester, the Network for Social Justice, and other groups to provide resources forour community, and to re-examine how deeply ingrained biases affect our work.Winchester is not immune to these incidents and we will continue to work to be an antiracist community."For resources, please visit the Massachusetts Asian American Commission's webpageat https://www.aacommission.org/. Please report any crimes to the Winchester PoliceDepartment at (781) 721-1212."Police arrested the suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long and charged him in connection with the shooting at Young's Asian Massage in Acworth, and at the Aroma Therapy Spa and the Gold Spa in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. Long admitted to the killings and blamed the massage parlors for fueling his sex addiction.