Gov. Ned Lamont directed that flags be lowered to
half-staff “as a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the senseless acts
of violence perpetrated on March 16 in the Atlanta metropolitan area.”
A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing
eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors in an attack that sent
terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly been
targeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
A day after the shootings, investigators were
trying to unravel a motive to commit the worst mass killing in the
U.S. in almost two years.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, told police that
Tuesday’s attack was not racially motivated. He claimed to have a “sex
addiction,” and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as
sources of temptation. But those statements spurred outrage and widespread
skepticism given the locations and that six of the eight victims were women of
Asian descent.
Lamont is directing U.S. and state flags in
Connecticut to fly at half-staff until sunset on Monday, March 22.
AP Wire Services were used in this report.