Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, March 17th. Let's get right to the news.

A Georgia man is in custody accused of killing eight people in a horrific shooting spree at three

different massage parlors in the Atlanta area yesterday.

The spree began around 5 p.m. when police say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long walked into Young's

Asian massage in Cherokee County, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, and opened fire, killing four

people and injuring another. Police say he then drove south to Atlanta

and shot and killed three people inside the gold spa. He then crossed the street, according to

police, to the aromatherapy spa and killed another woman there. Investigators say surveillance

video shows the suspect in his car at all three crime scenes.

He was arrested driving south about 150 miles from Atlanta. Officials say six of the eight victims

appear to be Asian. This comes amid an increase in attacks on the Asian community since the coronavirus pandemic.

The New York Police Department says it will deploy counterterrorism officers to Asian communities

in the city out of abundance of caution. A lot going on with this concern about hate crimes,

Willie. Yeah, let's go right down to atlanta that's where we

find nbc news correspondent blaine alexander blaine good morning uh so are the police saying yet

what the motive may be here obviously people drawing a lot of conclusions based on who these

victims are what exactly happened and what do police know about why it happened?

Well, Willie, good morning to you.

No, police are not quite yet saying what a motive is.

They're not releasing a motive, but they're saying that they're not ruling anything out.

So they are investigating a number of things.

Among the things that they are looking at is the possibility of whether this was a hate crime,

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