A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at an Atlanta-area massage business last week has said police held him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack.
“I don’t know whether it’s because of the law or because I’m Mexican,” Mario Gonzalez said. “The simple truth is that they treated me badly.”
Gonzalez said he was held in a patrol car outside the spa. The revelation, in an interview with Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language news website, follows other criticism of Cherokee county officials investigating the 16 March attack, which killed four people. Four others were killed about an hour later at two spas in Atlanta.
Gonzalez’s accusation would mean that he was detained after police had released security video images of the suspected gunman and after authorities captured him 150 miles south of Atlanta.
The Cherokee county sheriff’s office did not immediately comment.
Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of shooting five people including Gonzalez’s wife, Delaina Ashley Yaun, near Woodstock, about 30 miles north of Atlanta. One man was wounded. Seven of the people killed were women, six of them of Asian descent.
A Cherokee sheriff’s captain, Jay Baker, was removed as spokesman for the case after telling reporters Long had “a really bad day” and “this is what he did”. A Facebook page appearing to belong to Baker promoted a T-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus last year.
Sheriff Frank Reynolds released a statement acknowledging Baker’s comments stirred “much debate and anger” and said the agency regretted any “heartache” caused.
Gonzalez and Yaun, 33, booked a babysitter for their infant daughter and went to Youngs Asian Massage to relax. They were in separate rooms when the gunman opened fire.
Gonzalez heard the shots and worried about his wife but was too afraid to open the door, he told Mundo Hispanico. Deputies arrived within minutes. Gonzalez said they put him in handcuffs and detained him for about four hours.
“They had me in the patrol car the whole time they were investigating who was responsible, who exactly did this,” Gonzalez said in the video.
Gonzalez showed marks on his wrists from handcuffs.
“Only when they finally confirmed I was her husband, did they tell me that she was dead,“ he said. “I wanted to know earlier.”
Left alone to raise their daughter and his wife’s teenage son, Gonzalez said the gunman had taken “the most important thing I have in my life”.
“He deserves to die, just like the others did,” Gonzalez said.
Authorities have said the Cherokee county shooting happened around 5pm. Just after 6.30pm the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook images from a surveillance camera showing a suspect. Reynolds said Long’s family recognized him and gave investigators cellphone information which they used to track him.
Sheriff Billy Hancock of Crisp county said in a video on Facebook that night deputies and state troopers were notified around 8pm the suspect was headed their way. Deputies and troopers saw the black 2007 Hyundai Tucson around 8.30pm. A trooper performed a maneuver that caused the vehicle to spin and Long was arrested.