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

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

17 Could 2022, 21:08

• 7 min read

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Could 11 shooting 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 series of current shootings at Asian-run companies in the city, police stated.

The victims, the salon owner, an employee and a buyer, are all Korean, based on ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal accidents and have been transported to a neighborhood hospital, in keeping with police.

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

"Throughout our investigation, detectives learned that two years in the past Smith had a motorized vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia said. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic assaults and delusions when he's round anyone 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. 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 office in Dallas advised ABC Information on Monday. "We're in shut communication with Dallas Police and are partnering collectively to completely investigate this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we aren't capable of remark further presently."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the proprietor and an worker – had been present at the assembly, according to WFAA. The worker spoke with the assistance of an interpreter and her was face coated. The ladies did not reveal their names.

Garcia mentioned that police proceed to analyze two other shootings that may be linked to the salon shooting.

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

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced throughout a Friday press convention that legislation enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run companies may be connected.” The suspect in each incident was driving the same car.

This photo shows the inside of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Could 12, 2022. Police are in search of a man who opened fire inside the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three people.

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

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

Garcia mentioned the shooting at the salon could be linked to 1 that happened a day earlier than and one that took place final month.

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

And on Might 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or automotive drove by and shot into Asian-run companies close to 4849 Sunnyvale Street, police said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, now we have reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the attainable connection and ask for his or her assistance,” Garcia mentioned. “This consists of the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Activity Force. We're additionally working with North Texas police partners to find out if this prison action has or is taking place in their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia stated police might be growing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the city the place there are large Asian American populations.

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

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

ABC's Jim Ryan experiences:

ABC Information' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.