CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — A manhunt for the suspect in a deadly multi shooting at a Cherokee County massage parlor is now over after he was captured.
Authorities had been searching for 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, who they suspected in the shooting. He was captured just before 9 p.m. in Crisp County, Georgia, after a sheriff's deputy used a PIT maneuver to stop him.
Long's arrest comes after deputies were called to the 6400 block of Highway 92 - just west of Bells Ferry Road - around 5 p.m. Tuesday to respond to the scene at the Young Asians Massage Parlor.
When deputies got there, Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said they found two people who were dead inside, with three others still alive. Emergency crews rushed the three to the hospital, but one of them has since died. A fourth victim also later died.
While their identities have not been released, authorities said the victims included two Asian women, one white woman and one white man.
Baker said it's unclear at this time what prompted the shooting.
Baker called the shooting "unusual."
"In 2020, we had one homicide in Cherokee County, so, we've had three today, so it's pretty shocking not only to our responding deputies and public safety, but also to the community here. And we take this very serious," Baker said.
Baker said there were two other witnesses inside the business who were not shot, but he did not elaborate on what they may or may not have heard. At this time, he said investigators are still working out a motive, but don't believe robbery was the driving force because it appeared that nothing was taken.
While Baker said law enforcement believes there is no general threat to the public, he said that "a massage parlor would not be a good place to be this evening." That's because within an hour of the Cherokee County shooting, Atlanta Police also responded to reports of a shooting at two Piedmont Road spas that killed four people, mostly Asian women, according to police.
Police have since linked the two incidents, believing Long to be the suspect in both. Cherokee County officials said video surveillance at the Atlanta spas shows the same man and car from surveillance video at the Cherokee County spa.