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

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

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in reference to the Could 11 capturing of three ladies in a hair salon in the city's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and may very well be linked to a series of current shootings at Asian-run businesses in the metropolis, police mentioned.

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

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

"Throughout our investigation, detectives realized 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 around anyone of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Subject Workplace, the U.S. Lawyer’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 workplace in Dallas instructed ABC News on Monday. "We are in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to completely examine this incident. As this is an ongoing investigation, we aren't able to remark further right now."

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

Two of the taking pictures victims – the owner and an worker – were current on the meeting, in response to 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 analyze two other shootings that could be linked to the salon capturing.

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

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

This photograph shows the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police are in search of a person who opened fireplace contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three individuals.

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

Police also launched a security picture of a maroon minivan they stated the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia stated the taking pictures at the salon is likely to be linked to at least one that happened a day before and one that came about last month.

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

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

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have now reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the doable connection and ask for his or her assistance,” Garcia said. “This consists of the FBI and member businesses of the Joint Terrorism Activity Pressure. We are also working with North Texas police companions to find out if this felony motion has or is going down in their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia said police will likely be rising the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas in the city the place there are giant Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of town of Dallas to maintain an eye fixed out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia stated. “Hate has no place right here.”

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of attacks focusing on Asian Individuals throughout the nation, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC's Jim Ryan studies:

ABC News' Bill Hutchinson and contributed to this report.