On Tuesday, July 27, justice was partially served when a Cherokee County courthouse sentenced Robert Aaron Long, the shooter in the March 2021 Atlanta-area spa attacks that left eight people dead (six of whom were women of Asian descent), to four consecutive life sentences after he pleaded guilty to all four murder charges. For the remaining murders, for which he has yet to be officially charged, the district attorney in the neighboring Fulton County said she will be seeking the death penalty.
Minyvonne Burke of NBC News reported that “Cherokee County Superior Court Chief Judge Ellen McElyea handed down the sentence for Long on Tuesday, more than four months after the March 16 rampage inside Young’s Asian Massage. Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Xiaojie Tan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44, were killed. That same day, Long is accused of fatally shooting four others at two [additional] spas in Atlanta.”
According to Burke, “the guilty plea and the sentence were part of a deal announced during the proceeding.”
