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

The incident may be related to shootings at Asian-run companies, police mentioned.

17 Could 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

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

The victims, the salon owner, an employee and a customer, are all Korean, in response to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal accidents and had been transported to a neighborhood 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.

"During our investigation, detectives realized that two years in the past Smith had a motorcar crash with an Asian male," Garcia mentioned. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he is around anybody of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Discipline Workplace, the U.S. Attorney’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 discipline workplace in Dallas informed ABC News 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 are not capable of remark further at this time."

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

Two of the shooting victims – the owner and an employee – had been current on the meeting, in accordance with WFAA. The employee spoke with the assistance of an interpreter and her was face covered. The ladies did not reveal their names.

Garcia stated that police continue to investigate two other shootings that may be linked to the salon taking pictures.

"At this time, there have been no arrests on those cases," Garcia stated, including that the investigation is ongoing.

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced during a Friday press conference that regulation enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run businesses may be connected.” The suspect in every incident was driving the same car.

This photograph reveals the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police are in search of a person who opened hearth contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three people.

Police said they discovered from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what appeared to be "a dark coloration minivan-type vehicle" on Royal Lane after which walked across the parking lot and into the institution, allegedly opening fire as quickly as he entered the salon.

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

Garcia mentioned the shooting on the salon is likely to be linked to one that occurred a day before and one that happened final month.

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

And on May 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or automobile drove by and shot into Asian-run businesses close to 4849 Sunnyvale Street, police stated.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we've reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the doable connection and ask for their assistance,” Garcia mentioned. “This contains the FBI and member companies of the Joint Terrorism Job Drive. We are also working with North Texas police companions to determine if this felony motion has or is taking place in their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, May 12, 2022. A person opened fireplace contained in the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three people.

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

“We are turning to each resident of the town of Dallas to keep a watch out and safeguard our metropolis,” Garcia said. “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 studies:

ABC News' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.