Who is Robert Aaron Long, suspect in deadly Georgia spa shootings?

ATLANTA — Authorities arrested a 21-year-old Georgia man on Tuesday after investigators said he opened fire at three separate metro Atlanta spas earlier in the day, killing eight people and injuring one other.

The victims included several women of Asian descent. Authorities continue to investigate the motive behind the attack.

Here’s what we know so far:

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1. Authorities identified the suspect as Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia.

Capt. Jay Baker, a spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, identified the suspected shooter as Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock. Authorities said he shot at least nine people Tuesday evening at a massage parlor in Cherokee County and two others in northeast Atlanta.

“The suspect did take responsibility for the shootings,” Baker said Wednesday at a news conference.

Police said video footage also showed Long’s vehicle near the Atlanta spas at the time of the shootings, The Associated Press reported.

2. Investigators believe Long may have been motivated by a sex addiction.

Authorities reiterated Wednesday that it remained too early to say whether Tuesday’s deadly shootings constituted a hate crime.

“We’ve received a number of calls about ‘Is this a hate crime?’” Atlanta police Chief Rodney Bryant said Wednesday. “We are still early in this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at this moment.”

Baker said Wednesday that Long told investigators the shootings were not racially motivated.

“He apparently has issues, what he considers a sex addiction,” he said. “(He) sees these locations as... a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Long “frequented these places in the past and may have been lashing out,” though he also said the attacks might have been “targets of opportunity.”

In interviews with CNN and Reuters, former roommate Tyler Bayless said Long had sought treatment for sex addiction and lived in a rehabilitation facility from late 2019 to early 2020.

“In the halfway house, he would describe several of his sexual addiction ‘relapses,’ as he called them,” Bayless, who was receiving treatment for drug addiction at the time and lived in the same housing unit as Long, told Reuters. “He would have a deep feeling of remorse and shame and say he needed to return to prayer and to return to God.”

On Tuesday, the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate, released a statement calling the incident “an unspeakable tragedy.”

“The reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy – for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community – which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination,” Stop AAPI Hate tweeted Tuesday night. “Few details have been released, including whether or not the shootings were related or motivated by hate. But right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed.”

Diplomats with South Korea’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that four victims were women of Korean descent, but officials had not yet confirmed their nationalities, according to the AP.

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3. Long might have targeted businesses in Florida next.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Wednesday that investigators determined Long planned to head to Florida following Tuesday’s shooting to carrying out similar attacks there.

“It really speaks to the coordination and the quick response from law enforcement, for as tragic as this was on yesterday for metro Atlanta, this could have been significantly worse,” she said. “It is very likely that there would have been more victims.”

Baker said Long planned to target “some type of porn industry in that state.”

4. Tuesday’s deadly shootings began at a spa near Acworth.

Deputies were called to Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth about 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Howard J. Baker told CNN. Authorities said four people – including two women of Asian descent, one white woman and one white man – were killed and a Hispanic man was hurt after a gunman opened fire, The Washington Post reported.

Nearly an hour later, Atlanta police responded to two Piedmont Road spas, where four women of Asian descent had been shot and killed – three at Gold Spa and one at Aromatherapy Spa, according to WSB-TV.

Authorities have yet not released the names of the victims.

5. Long was captured Tuesday night in south Georgia.

In a Facebook video shared Tuesday night, Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said authorities were told that Long was headed to their area. Deputies and state troopers “made contact with the suspect” about 8:30 p.m. ET along Interstate 75, Hancock said.

Hancock said a trooper performed a pursuit intervention technique on the black 2007 Hyundai Tucson, causing it “to spin out of control,” the AP reported. Long was then arrested, the sheriff said.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings Activists participate in a vigil in response to the Atlanta spa shootings March 17, 2021, in the Chinatown area of Washington, D.C. A gunman opened fire in three spas in the Atlanta, Georgia area, the day before killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings Julie Tran holds her phone during a candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, on March 17, 2021, to unite against the recent spate of violence targeting Asians and to express grief and outrage after yesterday's shooting that left eight people dead in Atlanta, Georgia, including at least six Asian women. (APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings John and Barbara Hayes, of Sandy Springs, Georgia, bring flowers and offer prayers on March 17, 2021, at the steps of Gold Spa, one of the three Asian massage parlors that were the sites of deadly attacks in Northeast Atlanta, Georgia on March 16, 2021. (VIRGINIE KIPPELEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings Activists participate in a vigil in response to the Atlanta spa shootings March 17, 2021, in the Chinatown area of Washington, D.C. A gunman opened fire in three spas in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, the day before killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings Clover and Julie Tran stand with outstretched hands during a candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, on March 17, 2021, to unite against the recent spate of violence targeting Asians and to express grief and outrage after yesterday's shooting that left eight people dead in Atlanta, Georgia, including at least six Asian women. (APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings People hold a banner during a candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, on March 17, 2021, to unite against the recent spate of violence targeting Asians and to express grief and outrage after yesterday's shooting that left eight people dead in Atlanta, Georgia, including at least six Asian women. (APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings An Asian American man who did not want to be identified pauses in silence as he visits the makeshift memorial in front of Gold Spa, one of three locations where deadly shootings happened yesterday at three day spas, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., March 17, 2021. (Chris Aluka Berry for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Photos: Demonstrations, vigils held across country in wake of Atlanta spa shootings Worshippers offer prayers for victims of the Atlanta spa shooting in addition to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at the Mahayana Buddhist temple in Chinatown, New York City, on March 17, 2021, following the shootings in Atlanta. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, was captured around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday following a chase in Crisp County in south Georgia, about three hours away from the shooting scene. (Crisp County Sheriff's Office)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office released surveillance images of a suspect believed to be linked to the spa shootings. (Cherokee County Sheriff's Office)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings Officials talk on the phone in front of Gold Spa after a shooting on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said. A 21-year-old man suspected in the shootings was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt, police said. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings Law enforcement officials confer outside a massage parlor following a shooting on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs have left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Ga. Officials say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, has been captured hours after multiple people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings Officials stand in front of a massage parlor after a shooting, Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said. A 21-year-old man suspected in the shootings was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt, police said. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings An officer stands outside Gold Spa after a shooting, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said. A 21-year-old man suspected in the shootings was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt, police said. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings CORRECTS DATELINE TO ACWORTH INSTEAD OF WOODSTOCK - Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Ga. Officials say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, has been captured hours after multiple people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Photos: 8 killed, suspect arrested in deadly Georgia spa shootings A massage parlor is seen after a shooting, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Authorities say shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors have left several people dead, many of them women of Asian descent. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)