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

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

17 May 2022, 21:08

• 7 min read

Dallas police arrested a suspect in connection with the Might 11 capturing of three women in a hair salon within the city's Koreatown. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and might be linked to a collection of recent shootings at Asian-run companies in the metropolis, police mentioned.

The victims, the salon owner, an employee and a customer, are all Korean, according to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and have been transported to an area hospital, in response to police.

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

"Throughout our investigation, detectives realized that two years ago Smith had a motorcar crash with an Asian male," Garcia said. "Since this crash, Smith has had panic attacks and delusions when he is round anyone of Asian descent."

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

"The Dallas FBI Discipline Office, the U.S. Attorney’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 discipline workplace in Dallas informed ABC Information on Monday. "We're in close 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 further at this time."

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

Two of the taking pictures victims – the proprietor and an worker – had been present at the assembly, in line with WFAA. The employee spoke with the assistance of an interpreter and her was face covered. The ladies didn't reveal their names.

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

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

The arrest comes days after Garcia introduced throughout a Friday press conference that regulation enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run businesses may be related.” The suspect in every incident was driving an analogous automobile.

This photograph exhibits the interior of Hair World Salon in Dallas on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police are looking for a man who opened fireplace contained in the salon in Dallas' Koreatown area, wounding three individuals.

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

Police additionally launched a safety image of a maroon minivan they stated the shooter fled the scene in.

Garcia stated the taking pictures at the salon is perhaps linked to at least one that occurred a day earlier than and one that occurred final month.

Police learned from witness stories 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 Might 10, a suspect in a burgundy van or car drove by and shot into Asian-run companies close to 4849 Sunnyvale Avenue, police said.

“Out of an abundance of warning, we have now reached out to our companions to make them conscious of the attainable connection and ask for their help,” Garcia said. “This consists of the FBI and member businesses of the Joint Terrorism Process Power. We're also working with North Texas police partners to find out if this felony motion has or is happening of their jurisdictions.”

Hair World Salon in Dallas, Might 12, 2022. A man opened fireplace inside the hair salon in Dallas' Koreatown space, wounding three folks.

Garcia said police will probably be growing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the city the place there are massive Asian American populations.

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

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

ABC's Jim Ryan studies:

ABC Information' Invoice Hutchinson and contributed to this report.