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

The incident could also be related to shootings at Asian-run companies, police mentioned.

17 Might 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

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

The victims, the salon proprietor, an employee and a customer, are all Korean, in response to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries 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 conference on Tuesday. Garcia said that Smith was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.

"During our investigation, detectives learned that two years ago Smith had a motorized vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia said. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he's round anybody of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Area Office, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Northern District in Texas and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice have opened a federal hate crime investigation into the incident at Hair World Salon in Dallas,” a spokesperson for the FBI field office in Dallas informed ABC News on Monday. "We are in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering together to totally investigate this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we are not capable of comment further at this time."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an worker – had been current on the assembly, according to WFAA. The worker spoke with the assistance of an interpreter and her was face covered. The ladies didn't reveal their names.

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

"Presently, there have been no arrests on those circumstances," Garcia stated, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia announced during a Friday press convention that regulation enforcement “concluded three latest shootings of Asian run businesses may be linked.” The suspect in every incident was driving the same automobile.

This picture exhibits the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Could 12, 2022. Police are in search of a man who opened fire inside the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three folks.

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

Police additionally released a security picture of a maroon minivan they mentioned the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia said the capturing on the salon could be linked to 1 that occurred a day earlier than and one that happened last month.

Police learned from witness studies that on April 2, a driver in a crimson minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired shots at three businesses. No one was injured.

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

“Out of an abundance of warning, we've got reached out to our partners to make them aware of the doable connection and ask for their help,” Garcia mentioned. “This contains the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Process Drive. We're also working with North Texas police companions to find out if this prison motion has or is happening in their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia mentioned police shall be rising the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the city where there are large Asian American populations.

“We're turning to each resident of the city 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 focusing on Asian People throughout the nation, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan stories:

ABC Information' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.