Suspect identified in Dallas salon taking pictures as FBI opens hate crime investigation

The incident could also be connected to shootings at Asian-run businesses, police stated.

17 Might 2022, 21:08

• 7 min read

Dallas police arrested a suspect in reference to the Could 11 taking pictures of three girls in a hair salon within the city's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and may very well be linked to a collection of latest shootings at Asian-run companies within the metropolis, police mentioned.

The victims, the salon owner, an worker and a customer, are all Korean, based on ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal accidents and had been transported to an area hospital, based on police.

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

"During our investigation, detectives discovered that two years ago Smith had a motor vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia stated. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he's around anyone of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Subject Office, the U.S. Legal professional’s Office 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 advised ABC News on Monday. "We are in shut communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to totally examine this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we are not capable of remark further presently."

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

Two of the capturing victims – the owner and an employee – had been present at the assembly, in keeping with WFAA. The employee spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face covered. The ladies did not reveal their names.

Garcia said that police continue to analyze two other shootings that may be linked to the salon capturing.

"Presently, there have been no arrests on these instances," Garcia mentioned, including that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia announced throughout a Friday press conference that law enforcement “concluded three current shootings of Asian run companies could also be linked.” The suspect in every incident was driving an analogous vehicle.

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

Police said they learned from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what appeared to be "a darkish shade minivan-type automobile" on Royal Lane after which walked across the car parking zone and into the establishment, allegedly opening fireplace as soon as he entered the salon.

Police additionally released a security image of a maroon minivan they said the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia said the shooting on the salon is perhaps linked to one that occurred a day before and one that passed off last month.

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

And on May 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or automotive drove by and shot into Asian-run companies near 4849 Sunnyvale Street, police mentioned.

“Out of an abundance of caution, now we have reached out to our partners to make them aware of the doable connection and ask for their assistance,” Garcia said. “This contains the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Activity Pressure. We're additionally working with North Texas police companions to find out if this legal motion has or is taking place of their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia stated police will likely be growing the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas in the metropolis the place there are massive Asian American populations.

“We're turning to each resident of the town of Dallas to keep 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 in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan reports:

ABC News' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.