Jeremy Smith Dallas man arrested in Koreatown Asian owned hair salon possible hate crime shooting. Two other similar shootings also investigated.
A 36-year-old Texas man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at an Asian-owned hair salon in Dallas over the weekend, in what investigators now call a possible hate crime.
Jeremy Smith was on Tuesday booked into Dallas County jail on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the shooting at Hair Wold Salon in the Koreatown neighborhood on May 11, NBC5 reported.
At the time of the shooting, the gunman parked a red Honda Odyssey minivan across the street from the hair salon, ran inside and fired off 13 shots out of a .22 caliber rifle, before running out of the shop and back into the van and driving off.
At the time, seven people were inside the salon, with three female employees being wounded, all of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Police were able to track Smith down after witnesses were able to get some of the numbers of the van’s license plate WFAA reported.
‘having delusions that the Asian mob is after him or attempting to harm him.’
The FBI has been investigating the shooting as a federal hate crime.
During questioning, Smith admitted the red Honda Odyssey was his and that he was the only one with a key and access to the vehicle. He also told police he owns two guns, a .380 handgun and a .22 caliber rifle, while insisting he was not the gunman captured on surveillance video entering and leaving the store.
During an interview with police, a .380 handgun magazine with four live rounds was found in his pocket and a .380 handgun was found in the minivan along with 10 more live rounds.
According to the arrest document, Smith’s girlfriend told police he was involved in a crash with an Asian driver a couple of years ago and that since that time ‘has had near panic attacks when he is around anyone of Asian descent’ and was ‘having delusions that the Asian mob is after him or attempting to harm him.’ The woman said he had also been fired from a job after verbally attacking an Asian boss.
The Dallas Police Department tweeted that there would be more information released after the suspect was interviewed.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said the hair salon shooting is connected to two other incidents. On May 10, the unknown driver of a burgundy van shot at Asian businesses in a different part of Dallas. No one was injured. On April 2, several businesses at an Asian-run strip mall were shot at, but again, no one was hurt.
Only the May 11 hair salon shooting is part of the FBI’s hate crime probe. Nevertheless the FBI indicated that the other two incidents could be added to the federal ‘hate crime’ investigation at a later time.
‘The Dallas FBI Field Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District in Texas, and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice have opened a federal hate crime investigation into the incident at Hair World Salon in Dallas. We are in close communication with Dallas Police and are partnering together to thoroughly investigate this incident,’ said Melinda Urbina of the Dallas FBI office.
