By JAMIE STENGLE, Related Press
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas’ police chief mentioned Friday {that a} capturing that injured three ladies in a hair salon within the metropolis’s Koreatown may need been a hate crime as he introduced that it might be linked to 2 different shootings at companies run by Asian Individuals.
Chief Eddie Garcia had beforehand mentioned police did not have any indication the capturing Wednesday at Hair World Salon was motivated by hate, however he mentioned that had modified as of Friday afternoon.
“The chance that we’re coping with a violent gunman who’s motivated by hate is chilling and deeply disturbing,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson mentioned in an announcement Friday.
Authorities are nonetheless trying to find a person dressed all in black who opened fireplace on the salon, then drove off in a maroon minivan. Garcia mentioned investigators discovered {that a} related automobile was reported to be concerned in two different current shootings, together with an April 2 drive-by within the space the place the salon is positioned. Nobody was injured in both of these shootings.
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“We’re turning to each resident of the town of Dallas to maintain an eye fixed out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia mentioned. “Hate has no place right here.”
“We have to get this particular person in custody,” Garcia mentioned.
He mentioned the automobile was additionally linked to a drive-by capturing on Tuesday about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of the procuring heart the place Wednesday’s capturing occurred.
Garcia mentioned police could be growing patrols, they usually had been reaching out to different police departments in North Texas to see if there have been any related incidents of their space. He mentioned Dallas police have additionally reached out to the FBI to allow them to know of the attainable connection.
The three ladies who had been shot on the salon had been taken to a hospital with accidents that weren’t life-threatening.
The daughter of one of many injured ladies mentioned her mom informed her that the person, whom she didn’t acknowledge, calmly walked in, opened fireplace and left.
John Jun, a founding member of the Dallas-Fort Price chapter of the Korean American Coalition, mentioned he’d hoped that the capturing on the salon was an remoted incident.
“Now we’re a bit of extra involved as a result of it looks like they’re concentrating on for positive Asian Individuals and almost definitely Korean American companies within the space,” Jun mentioned.
He mentioned the salon is within the coronary heart of Koreatown, which is in part of the town that was reworked within the Eighties from an industrial space to a thriving district with procuring, eating, markets, medical places of work and salons.
“The persons are clearly shaken and they’re on the sting proper now,” Jun mentioned.
Anti-Asian violence has risen sharply in recent times. Final 12 months, six ladies of Asian descent had been among the many eight killed in a capturing at therapeutic massage companies in and close to Atlanta, heightening anger and worry amongst Asian Individuals.
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