Suspect in Dallas Salon Shooting Taken into Custody

            Dallas Country police arrested Jeremy Smith on Tuesday, May 17 for the shooting at Dallas Koreatown’s own Hair World Salon, totaling three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Smith is currently being held in custody as police begin their interviews with him, asserting to provide more information to the public afterward.

            On May 11, a gunman entered the Asian-owned Hair World Salon and began yelling and firing before running into a minivan and pulling away, leaving three female employees with non-life-threatening injuries. Smith (36), who appears to match the description of the gunman, was taken in for questioning after police looked into security camera footage.

            This attack is now being considered in conjunction with two other recent crimes against Asian businesses in the Dallas area, with the possibility of a connection to committing mass amounts of hate crimes against the Asian American community in Dallas. The two other attacks, shootings at businesses in an Asian strip mall on April 2 and another unknown driver shooting at other Asian businesses on May 10, both held no injuries to anyone involved according to CNN.

            Smith appears to be a good candidate to have the motivation to commit such racially charged attacks, as according to the New York Post, his girlfriend noted him having delusions centering on Asian Americans coming to hurt him for the past two years, beginning after a car crash with a man of Asian descent. He was additionally recently fired for verbally assaulting his boss, another man of Asian descent.