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

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

17 Could 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Might 11 taking pictures of three girls in a hair salon in 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 companies in the city, police said.

The victims, the salon owner, an employee and a buyer, are all Korean, in accordance with ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and had been transported to an area hospital, in response to police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia recognized 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.

"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 Discipline 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 field office in Dallas told ABC News on Monday. "We are in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering together to totally examine this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we aren't capable of comment further right now."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an employee – had been present at the assembly, in accordance with WFAA. The employee spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face coated. The ladies didn't reveal their names.

Garcia said that police proceed to research two different shootings that could be linked to the salon capturing.

"At the moment, there have been no arrests on those circumstances," Garcia stated, including that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced during a Friday press convention that legislation enforcement “concluded three current shootings of Asian run businesses could also be connected.” The suspect in every incident was driving an identical vehicle.

This photograph shows the inside of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Might 12, 2022. Police are searching for a person who opened hearth contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three individuals.

Police stated they learned from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what appeared to be "a dark colour minivan-type automobile" on Royal Lane and then 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 picture of a maroon minivan they stated the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia stated the taking pictures on the salon may be linked to at least one that happened a day earlier than 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 companies and fired pictures at three companies. No one 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 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 his or her help,” Garcia stated. “This contains the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Task Power. We are also working with North Texas police companions to determine if this criminal motion has or is going down of their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia said police will be growing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the metropolis the place there are large Asian American populations.

“We are turning to each resident of the town of Dallas to keep an eye fixed out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia said. “Hate has no place here.”

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

ABC's Jim Ryan reports:

ABC Information' Bill Hutchinson and contributed to this report.