TEXAS-DALLAS The guy known as Jeremy Smith accused of shooting dead three Asian ladies at a saloon in Dallas’ Koreatown has been charged with seven counts of aggravated assault. According to sources, each offense carries a penalty of imprisonment ranging from five to 99 years.
At the Hair World Salon in the Koreatown neighborhood of northwest Dallas, Smith, 37, is suspected of shooting dead three Korean women May 11, including the salon owner, a stylist and a customer. According to the warrant affidavit, the shooter shot the victims about 13 times with a .22-caliber rifle, according to NBC. After being hospitalized for gunshot wounds, the women were released. According to CBS, Smith was arrested on $700,000 bail after he was arrested by Dallas police on May 16. According to a report by the AP, the Dallas County Attorney’s Office on Tuesday, Aug. 9, announced the indictment, which included seven counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon, each with a hate crime felony and a sentence of five to 99 years in prison. Smith is believed to have deliberately selected the complainants because of his bigotry or prejudice against Asian Americans, it said.
According to a previous AP article, Smith’s fiancée reportedly informed authorities that he had had delusions about Asian Americans since he was involved in a car accident with an Asian man two years ago. She claimed that he was committed to many psychiatric institutions because of the delusions. He’s beginning to think the Asian mob is chasing him or trying to hurt him, the woman claimed. She also mentioned that he lost his job for verbally abusing his Asian-American supervisor.
After the incident, Smith could be seen in security footage backing up to his four-wheeler, a Honda Odyssey minivan, carrying an “assault weapon.” The police are currently investigating the incident.
According to the AP, six of the eight people killed in a 2021 massage parlor shooting in and around Atlanta were women of Asian descent. Jose Gomez III, a 21-year-old Texas man, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for beating an Asian family in 2020, believing them to be Chinese and responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.
A California nonprofit called the Asian American-Pacific Islander Equity Alliance has compiled reports of 10,370 hate crimes committed between March 2020 and September 2021. The study showed data on hate crimes, including 4,599 cases from 2020 and 5,771 cases from 2021.