The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today expressed strong solidarity with the Asian-American community after mass shootings at three different businesses in the Atlanta area took the lives of eight people. At least six of the victims are reported to be Asian and seven of the eight victims are women.
In a statement, CAIR also called for a full hate crime investigation into the shooting, which occurred amid a rise in bias crimes targeting Asian-Americans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In a statement, CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo said:
“We are heartbroken by the news of the eight Asian American women killed in Atlanta last night. We mourn them and pray for the many loved ones they leave behind. The hate against the Asian American community has continued to take place and it is time public officials confront this racism and investigate this incident as a hate crime.”
Over the past year, CAIR-SFBA has repeatedly spoken out against anti-Asian hate crime attacks that have taken place across the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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