Biden Orders U.S. Flags Lowered For Spa Victims, Visits Atlanta

ATLANTA — President Joe Biden released a proclamation ordering all U.S. flags to fly at half-mast for five days to honor the victims of Tuesday’s deadly massage parlor shootings a day before his visit to Atlanta.

In light of the tragedy, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will postpone a scheduled evening political event to visit with Asian-American leaders to discuss threats against the Asian community, the White House said. Biden made the proclamation to lower flags in honor of the eight people killed Tuesday when a lone gunman attacked spas in Acworth and in Atlanta.

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff,” Biden’s proclamation reads.

The proclamation applies to flags at all federal buildings and properties including the White House and other federal buildings in Washington D.C. and across the nation, at all military posts and naval stations, on all naval vessels, and at all U.S. embassies, consular offices and other U.S. installations around the world through sundown on March 22.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, confessed to entering three spas in Cherokee County and in Atlanta on Tuesday and shooting nine people, killing eight and leaving one person injured in a violent rampage he told police was to quell his own sexual addictions that he “blames the massage parlors for providing an outlet for,” Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said.

The attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the U.S., and the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shooting that left nine people dead, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

During remarks given Wednesday, Biden acknowledged that while there was no indication that the incident that targeted mostly Asian victims was racially motivated, it was still important to recognize during the global coronavirus pandemic with origins in China that people of Asian descent have unfairly been targets of harassment and scorn.

"Whatever the motivation here, I know that Asian Americans are very concerned," Biden said. "I've been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans for the last couple of months."

The White House had planned their Atlanta visit to tout the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. In addition to meeting with Asian-American leaders, the president will meet with local officials and visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, White House officials said.