“Dallas Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting” Wednesday, the department tweeted. “The suspect is being interviewed and processed.”
More information is expected Tuesday from Police Chief Edgardo Garcia, the tweet said.
It was not immediately clear if the suspect is linked to two other incidents — on May 10 and April 2 — in which a shooter fired into businesses in a neighborhood known as the first Korean enclave in the Dallas area.
The arrest comes amid a steady surge of reported hate crimes against Asian Americans and as more details emerge about a deadly weekend attack at a New York supermarket that authorities say is the latest in a series of hate-motivated mass shootings in the United States.
At the Dallas hair salon, three women suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a suspect ran in, shouted and began shooting, authorities said. The suspect ran back to a red, older-style minivan and sped away, a witness said according to police.
A day earlier, a suspect in a burgundy van or car drove by and shot into an Asian-run business, police said; three people there were not injured. And on April 2, a vehicle described by witnesses as a red minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian-run businesses and fired at three businesses, Garcia said at the time.
Dallas police believe the three shootings may be connected because of the vehicle descriptions — and may be hate-motivated, Garcia said Friday, adding his department had reached out to the FBI and other Texas agencies in its probe.
Earlier “in the investigation, we did not have any indication that this crime was hate-motivated,” he said Friday. “As of this afternoon, that has changed.”
The possibility the shootings were motivated by hate is “chilling and deeply disturbing,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said Friday.
“I want our city’s Asian American community — which has appallingly faced increasing vitriol in recent years — to know that the City of Dallas and the people of Dallas stand with them,” he said in a statement. “Hate has no place in our city.”
Dallas police last week described the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as “a Black male,” approximately 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10, “with a thin build, curly medium-length hair and a connecting beard.”
“To safeguard our community, we will be utilizing camera trailers in certain areas and every patrol station has been advised to increase visibility patrols in the areas of our Asian community,” Garcia said. “Most important, we are turning to every resident of the city of Dallas to keep an eye out and safeguard our city. Hate has no place here.”
This article was originally published by Cnn.com. Read the original article here.
