Suspect identified in Dallas salon shooting as FBI opens hate crime investigation

The incident may be linked to shootings at Asian-run businesses, police said.

17 Might 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Could 11 capturing of three girls in a hair salon in the city's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and could be linked to a sequence of current shootings at Asian-run companies within the metropolis, police mentioned.

The victims, the salon proprietor, an worker and a buyer, are all Korean, according to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal accidents and had been transported to a neighborhood hospital, in accordance with police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia recognized the suspect as 36-year-old Jeremy Smith during a press conference on Tuesday. Garcia mentioned that Smith was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.

"During our investigation, detectives discovered that two years in the past Smith had a motorized vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia mentioned. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he is round anyone of Asian descent."

The Dallas Police Department and the FBI are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

"The Dallas FBI Field Workplace, the U.S. Attorney’s Workplace for the Northern District in Texas and the Civil Rights Division of the Division of Justice have opened a federal hate crime investigation into the incident at Hair World Salon in Dallas,” a spokesperson for the FBI subject workplace in Dallas advised ABC Information on Monday. "We're in shut communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to totally examine this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we're not able to remark further at this time."

Police met with neighborhood members at a town corridor in Koreatown on Monday amid concerns for the general public's security.

Two of the shooting victims – the owner and an worker – had been current at the assembly, in keeping with WFAA. The worker spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face coated. The women did not reveal their names.

Garcia said that police proceed to investigate two different shootings which may be linked to the salon taking pictures.

"Right now, there have been no arrests on these instances," Garcia said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia announced during a Friday press conference that law enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run companies may be linked.” The suspect in every incident was driving an identical vehicle.

This photo shows the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Might 12, 2022. Police are looking for a man who opened fire contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three folks.

Police stated they realized from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what seemed to be "a dark coloration minivan-type automobile" on Royal Lane after which walked throughout the parking zone and into the institution, allegedly opening fireplace as quickly as he entered the salon.

Police also launched a safety image of a maroon minivan they mentioned the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia said the shooting at the salon may be linked to at least one that occurred a day earlier than and one which happened last month.

Police discovered from witness reports that on April 2, a driver in a pink minivan drove previous a strip mall of Asian-run companies and fired photographs at three businesses. Nobody was injured.

And on Could 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or automobile drove by and shot into Asian-run companies close to 4849 Sunnyvale Street, police mentioned.

“Out of an abundance of warning, we have now reached out to our partners to make them aware of the attainable connection and ask for their assistance,” Garcia said. “This consists of the FBI and member businesses of the Joint Terrorism Process Pressure. We're additionally working with North Texas police companions to determine if this prison action has or is going down in their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, Might 12, 2022. A man opened fire contained in the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three folks.

Garcia said police might be increasing the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas within the metropolis where there are giant Asian American populations.

“We're turning to each resident of the town of Dallas to keep a watch out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia stated. “Hate has no place here.”

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of assaults targeting Asian Individuals throughout the nation, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan reviews:

ABC Information' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.