Dallas investigators do not believe the shooting of three Korean women at a hair salon Wednesday is a hate crime, the city’s police chief said Thursday.
“From what we know at this point, we can confidently say that hate was not a motivating factor,” Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
The three victims in Wednesday’s shooting are stable, police said. The search for the shooter was ongoing.
The shooting, which happened in an area called the Asian Trade District, known as the city’s Koreatown, raised some concerns in the city’s Korean community, a local community leader has said.
It happened a little more than a year after a gunman in Georgia killed eight women, six of whom were of Asian descent, at three different Atlanta-area spas.
In Wednesday’s shooting in Dallas, a gunman entered the Hair World Salon around 2:20 p.m. and opened fire, police said. He fled in a maroon minivan.
Police said the women were struck in their extremities.
Garcia did not describe a motive Thursday.
He said he understands the fears that can arise in communities following a shooting like the one that happened Wednesday.
“If there were a nexus to hate, we certainly would be conducting outreach to ensure our community knows, and it’s important that our community realizes that,” Garcia said.
As of Friday morning, the suspect was still at large.
A woman who said she was one of the shooting victims spoke to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth through a translator, asking to not be identified out of fear.
When asked how she was doing, “she said everything OK. She really scared. She can’t go back to the salon,” the translator replied.
The woman said she was shot in both of her feet and struggles to walk.
She told the station she owns the salon with another woman, who was also shot and underwent surgery.
Marlene Lenthang contributed.
