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

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

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in reference to the Might 11 taking pictures of three ladies in a hair salon in the metropolis's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and might be linked to a collection of current shootings at Asian-run businesses in the metropolis, police stated.

The victims, the salon owner, an worker and a buyer, are all Korean, based on ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and had been transported to a local hospital, in keeping with 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.

"Throughout our investigation, detectives discovered that two years in the past Smith had a motorized vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia stated. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he's round anybody of Asian descent."

The Dallas Police Division 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 Department of Justice have opened a federal hate crime investigation into the incident at Hair World Salon in Dallas,” a spokesperson for the FBI subject office in Dallas informed ABC News on Monday. "We are in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to completely examine this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we're not able to remark further presently."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an employee – were present at the meeting, in line with WFAA. The worker spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face lined. The ladies didn't reveal their names.

Garcia said that police proceed to research two other shootings that may be linked to the salon shooting.

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

The arrest comes days after Garcia announced during a Friday press convention that legislation enforcement “concluded three latest shootings of Asian run businesses may be connected.” The suspect in every incident was driving an analogous vehicle.

This photo reveals the inside of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police are on the lookout for a man who opened fireplace contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three folks.

Police stated they learned from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what seemed to be "a dark shade minivan-type car" on Royal Lane and then walked across the parking zone and into the institution, allegedly opening fire as quickly as he entered the salon.

Police also launched a safety image of a maroon minivan they said the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia stated the capturing on the salon might be linked to one that happened a day before and one that passed off final month.

Police discovered from witness stories that on April 2, a driver in a pink minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired photographs at three businesses. No one was injured.

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

“Out of an abundance of warning, we've reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the doable connection and ask for his or her help,” Garcia said. “This includes the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Process Drive. We're additionally working with North Texas police partners to find out if this legal motion has or is going down in their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia stated police will probably be rising the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas within the city where there are large Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of the town of Dallas to maintain a watch out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia mentioned. “Hate has no place here.”

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

ABC's Jim Ryan experiences:

ABC News' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.