Crime & Safety

Convicted Spa Shooter Must Now Face Atlanta Murder Charges

Robert Aaron Long is booked into the Fulton County Jail to face charges in Atlanta after being sentenced to 4 life terms in Cherokee County.

Robert Aaron Long is booked into the Fulton County Jail to face charges in Atlanta after being sentenced to 4 life terms in Cherokee County.
Robert Aaron Long is booked into the Fulton County Jail to face charges in Atlanta after being sentenced to 4 life terms in Cherokee County. (Courtesy of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

ATLANTA — Admitted massage parlor shooter Robert Aaron Long was convicted Tuesday in Cherokee County, but now must face justice in Fulton County.

Late Wednesday morning the 22-year-old Long was booked into the Fulton County jail after an overnight stay at a state prison in Jackson.

Long was charged with eight counts of murder, among other offenses, by prosecutors in Cherokee and Fulton counties after a March 16 shooting rampage at three spas in Woodstock and Atlanta.

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In his confession to investigators, he claimed he was driven by an urge to stamp out the perceived sources of his own sex addiction.

Long admitted to fatally shooting Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, at Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County.

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Immediately afterpleading guilty Tuesday to four counts of murder — part of a plea deal to avoid a potential death penalty — and a judge sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences plus 35 years without the possibility of parole, he was spirited 88 miles away to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, a Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told Patch.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Long on May 11 in the killings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, all of whom were shot at the Gold Spa or Aroma Therapy Spa in Atlanta.

At 10:49 a.m., on Tuesday, Long was booked into the Fulton jail (more than 50 miles north of Jackson) on 19 charges, including the four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder — committing a felony that directly causes death — five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of domestic terrorism, according to jail records.

He will be arraigned in Fulton County Superior Court on Aug. 8 at 9 a.m., according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

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