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

The incident could also be related to shootings at Asian-run businesses, police said.

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min read

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Could 11 capturing 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 sequence of latest shootings at Asian-run companies within the city, police stated.

The victims, the salon owner, an employee and a customer, are all Korean, according to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and have been transported to a local hospital, in line with police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia identified the suspect as 36-year-old Jeremy Smith throughout 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 motorcar 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 Office, the U.S. Lawyer’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 area workplace in Dallas instructed ABC News on Monday. "We're in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to totally investigate this incident. As this is an ongoing investigation, we're not capable of remark additional at this time."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the owner and an worker – had been current on the assembly, in line with WFAA. The employee spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face lined. The ladies did not reveal their names.

Garcia stated that police continue to research two other shootings which may be linked to the salon shooting.

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

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced throughout a Friday press convention that law enforcement “concluded three latest shootings of Asian run businesses may be related.” The suspect in every incident was driving an identical vehicle.

This picture reveals the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police are searching for a person who opened hearth inside the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three individuals.

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 after which walked across the parking lot and into the institution, allegedly opening fireplace as quickly as he entered the salon.

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

Garcia mentioned the shooting on the salon might be linked to at least one that happened a day before and one that passed off final month.

Police realized from witness reviews that on April 2, a driver in a crimson minivan drove previous a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired pictures at three businesses. Nobody was injured.

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

“Out of an abundance of caution, we now have reached out to our partners to make them aware of the attainable connection and ask for their help,” Garcia mentioned. “This includes the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Job Drive. We are also working with North Texas police companions to find out if this prison motion has or is happening of their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, May 12, 2022. A man opened fire inside the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three individuals.

Garcia stated police shall be increasing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the metropolis where there are large Asian American populations.

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

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of attacks concentrating on Asian People throughout the nation, which spiked in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan experiences:

ABC Information' Bill Hutchinson and contributed to this report.