A Georgia sheriff’s deputy and the primary spokesperson for the Tuesday night shooting at three Atlanta-area massage businesses that left eight people dead, six of whom were of Asian descent, is facing outrage after saying shooting suspect was having “a really bad day.”
Now it has come to light that deputy, Captain Jay Baker, the spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, has posted anti-Asian content on his Facebook page.
On Thursday, media reports, including CNN, reported that Baker is no longer the spokesperson for the case.
"Captain Jay Baker is no longer the spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office’s case investigating the spa shooting, the sheriff’s office confirmed to CNN," a CNN story reported Thursday afternoon.
Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds also said in an NBC News story that "His personal ties to the Asian community and his unwavering support and commitment to the citizens of Cherokee County are well known to many. On behalf of the dedicated women and men of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office we regret any heartache Captain Baker's words may have caused."
The suspected gunman, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Ga, was charged with eight counts of murder in the shooting rampage. But, according to reporting by the New York Times, during a Wednesday press briefing, Baker characterized Long’s motivations by saying that he “was pretty much fed up and had been kind of at the end of his rope.” Adding: “Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
Long admitted to the shooting, but said that it was not racially motivated. He told police he had a sexual addition and by shooting the women, he believed he was eliminating the source of his addiction.
Baker’s comments were met with disdain, with many saying that had Long not been white he would never have been given such a seemingly sympathetic description.
Then people went to Baker’s Facebook page from March 30 and April 2 of 2020, and found posts promoting the sale of an anti-Asian T-shirt. With a graphic that referred to the coronavirus as an “imported virus from Chy-na.”
The March 2020 Facebook post about the T-shirt said, “Place your order while they last." The account was deleted Wednesday night, Associated Press reports.
Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered flags in the Atlanta-area, all embassies, consular offices and facilities abroad, to be flown at half-staff until March 22, in honor of the victims of the deadly shooting.