Dallas police arrest suspect in Koreatown salon shooting

• Three women of Asian descent were wounded when a shooter opened fire at Koreatown hair salon in Dallas.
• Police said they had uncovered details during the investigation that suggested that the shooting may be linked to hate.
• The suspect is being interviewed and processed.

Dallas police on Tuesday said a suspect has been arrested in last week's Koreatown hair salon shooting that wounded three women in an incident that echoed last year's Atlanta-area shooting spree that targeted women of Asian descent.

The suspect, who was not identified, was being interviewed and processed, the Dallas Police Department said on Twitter.

Dallas Police Chief Edgardo Garcia will release more information on the arrest later on Tuesday, police said.

The shooter entered a hair salon in the city's Koreatown section on Wednesday, opened fire and wounded the owner of the Hair World salon, a stylist who worked there and a customer. All three were Korean women. They were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.

Police initially said there was no evidence suggesting that the shooting was a hate crime but that changed late last week when Garcia said new details uncovered during the investigation now suggested that there may be a "link to hate."

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He said investigators were looking into a possible connection between the Wednesday shooting and others in recent weeks targeting Asian businesses in the city. A red or maroon vehicle was used in all three incidents, he said.

Attacks against people of Asian descent have escalated in recent years, in part because of the perception that China was responsible for triggering the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The trend has fostered an atmosphere of fear and distrust in Asian communities

Law enforcement circulated images from the scene that showed a person wearing black and carrying a large rifle while appearing to run out of a parking lot.

The Korean-American community in the Dallas area ranks among the largest in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, and Koreatown is the historic hub of the area's Asian and Asian-American residents.