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

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

17 Might 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the May 11 capturing of three women in a hair salon in the metropolis's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and could possibly be linked to a sequence of recent shootings at Asian-run businesses within the metropolis, police stated.

The victims, the salon proprietor, an worker and a customer, are all Korean, in response to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal accidents and have been transported to a local hospital, according to police.

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

"During our investigation, detectives learned that two years in the past Smith had a motor vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia mentioned. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic assaults and delusions when he's around anybody 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. 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 field workplace in Dallas advised ABC News on Monday. "We're in close 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 at the moment."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an employee – had been current at the meeting, in line with WFAA. The employee spoke with the assistance of an interpreter and her was face lined. The women did not reveal their names.

Garcia stated that police proceed to investigate two different shootings that could be linked to the salon shooting.

"At the moment, there have been no arrests on these instances," Garcia said, including that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia announced throughout a Friday press convention that regulation enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run companies could also be linked.” The suspect in each incident was driving an analogous automobile.

This photograph reveals the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Could 12, 2022. Police are looking for a person who opened fireplace contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three people.

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

Police also released a safety picture of a maroon minivan they mentioned the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia said the capturing at the salon might be linked to 1 that happened a day before and one which took place last month.

Police realized from witness reports that on April 2, a driver in a purple minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired shots at three companies. Nobody was injured.

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

“Out of an abundance of caution, now we have reached out to our companions to make them conscious of the attainable connection and ask for his or her help,” Garcia mentioned. “This consists of the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Job Power. We're also working with North Texas police companions to find out if this felony motion has or is taking place of their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, Could 12, 2022. A person opened fire inside the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three people.

Garcia mentioned police can be rising the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas in the metropolis the place there are massive Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of the town of Dallas to keep an eye fixed out and safeguard our city,” Garcia mentioned. “Hate has no place right here.”

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of assaults concentrating on Asian Individuals across the nation, which spiked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan studies:

ABC News' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.