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

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

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min learn

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Could 11 capturing of three women in a hair salon in the city's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and could possibly be linked to a collection of latest shootings at Asian-run businesses within the metropolis, police said.

The victims, the salon proprietor, an worker and a buyer, are all Korean, based on ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and have been transported to a local hospital, in response to police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia identified 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 ago Smith had a motorized vehicle crash with an Asian male," Garcia said. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he's around anybody of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Discipline Workplace, the U.S. Legal professional’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 workplace in Dallas advised ABC Information on Monday. "We're in shut communication with Dallas Police and are partnering together to thoroughly investigate this incident. As that is an ongoing investigation, we're not capable of comment additional at this time."

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

Two of the capturing victims – the proprietor and an worker – have been current at the meeting, based on WFAA. The employee spoke with the help of an interpreter and her was face coated. The women didn't reveal their names.

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

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

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced throughout a Friday press conference that law enforcement “concluded three current shootings of Asian run companies may be related.” The suspect in every incident was driving the same car.

This photograph reveals the inside of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, Might 12, 2022. Police are on the lookout for a person who opened fire contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three individuals.

Police said they discovered from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked in what seemed to be "a darkish coloration minivan-type automobile" on Royal Lane and then walked throughout the car parking zone and into the institution, allegedly opening fireplace as soon as he entered the salon.

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

Garcia said the capturing on the salon is perhaps linked to one that occurred a day earlier than and one which took place last month.

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

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

“Out of an abundance of warning, now we have reached out to our partners to make them conscious of the possible connection and ask for their help,” Garcia said. “This consists of the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Job Drive. We are additionally working with North Texas police partners to determine if this prison action has or is going down of their jurisdictions.”

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

Garcia said police will likely be growing the presence of excessive visibility patrol officers in areas within the metropolis the place there are massive Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of the city of Dallas to keep a watch out and safeguard our city,” Garcia said. “Hate has no place here.”

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

ABC's Jim Ryan reviews:

ABC News' Bill Hutchinson and contributed to this report.