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

The incident could also be connected to shootings at Asian-run companies, police said.

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min read

Dallas police arrested a suspect in reference to the May 11 shooting of three ladies in a hair salon in the metropolis's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and might be linked to a sequence of current shootings at Asian-run companies within the city, police stated.

The victims, the salon proprietor, an worker and a buyer, are all Korean, in line with ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The ladies suffered nonfatal injuries and have been transported to a local hospital, in keeping with police.

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

"Throughout our investigation, detectives learned that two years in the past Smith had a motor vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia said. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he is round anybody 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 discipline office in Dallas instructed ABC Information on Monday. "We're in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to completely examine this incident. As this is an ongoing investigation, we're not capable of comment additional at this time."

Police met with group members at a city hall in Koreatown on Monday amid issues for the public's security.

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an employee – were present at the meeting, according to WFAA. The worker spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face lined. The women didn't reveal their names.

Garcia mentioned that police continue to research two different shootings that could be linked to the salon taking pictures.

"At this time, there have been no arrests on those circumstances," Garcia mentioned, including that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced during a Friday press conference that regulation enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run businesses could also be related.” The suspect in every incident was driving an identical automobile.

This photograph shows the inside of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Could 12, 2022. Police are on the lookout for a person who opened fire contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three people.

Police mentioned they discovered from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what seemed to be "a darkish coloration minivan-type vehicle" on Royal Lane and then walked throughout the car parking zone and into the establishment, allegedly opening fire as soon as he entered the salon.

Police additionally released a safety picture of a maroon minivan they stated the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia said the taking pictures at the salon is likely to be linked to 1 that happened a day earlier than and one which took place last month.

Police discovered from witness reviews that on April 2, a driver in a pink minivan drove previous a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired photographs at three businesses. No one was injured.

And on May 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or automobile drove by and shot into Asian-run businesses near 4849 Sunnyvale Avenue, police stated.

“Out of an abundance of warning, we've reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the attainable connection and ask for his or her assistance,” Garcia said. “This consists of the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Job Drive. We are additionally working with North Texas police companions to determine if this legal motion has or is going down of their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, May 12, 2022. A person opened fireplace inside the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three folks.

Garcia said police shall be growing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas within the city where there are massive Asian American populations.

“We're turning to every resident of the town of Dallas to maintain an eye out and safeguard our city,” Garcia stated. “Hate has no place right here.”

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

ABC's Jim Ryan studies:

ABC Information' Bill Hutchinson and contributed to this report.