A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office in Cherokee County, Georgia came under fire Wednesday afternoon for pinning down the deadly shooting on Tuesday that left eight dead – including six Asian women – on the ‘very bad day’ of a 21-year-old White man.
“Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” said Jay Baker at the joint press conference with the Atlanta police about 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long.
But it appears the same spokesperson has shared racist content online, including pointing the finger at China for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – the same vitriol advocates say it has sparked a horrific wave of violence against Asian Americans.
On a Facebook page associated with Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office, several photos show the law enforcement officer promoting T-shirts with the slogan “COVID-19 imported virus from CHY-NA.”
“Place your order while supplies last,” Baker wrote with a smiling face in a March 30 photo of the racist T-shirts.
“I love my shirt,” Baker wrote in another post in April 2020. “Buy yours while they last.”
The shirts appear to have been printed by Deadline Appeal, owned by a former Cherokee County deputy sheriff, and sold for $ 22. The shop, which promotes fully customizable gear, also appears to be printing shirts for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard, a ” ceremonial unit, all volunteers, representing not only the Sheriff’s Office, but the county as well as participating in a variety of events, ”said an Instagram post on March 10.
The photos on Baker’s account were first spotted by a Twitter user.
Multiple photos on the Facebook page show Baker in his uniform and attending sheriff’s department functions, including one with his name tag clearly visible. Baker did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his personal cell phone and at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s office.
When contacted by The Daily Beast, Sheriff Frank Reynolds, who appears to be friends with Baker on Facebook, said he was unfamiliar with the racist photos.
“I’m not aware of that. I’ll have to contact him, but thanks for bringing that to my attention, ”said Reynolds.
Reynolds’ official sheriff’s department page mentions as part of his previous experience a period from 2005 to 2008 at the Department of State, fully described in abbreviations: WPPS HTP, IC BWUSA. This appears to stand for Worldwide Personal Protective Services, a contract awarded by the federal government to independent contractor Blackwater USA. His campaign page alludes to working in Iraq without mentioning his employer. Blackwater gained notoriety after its private guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. There is currently no evidence linking Reynolds to that incident, and he did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The massacre at three Asian massage parlors comes amid a shocking wave of anti-Asian violence in the United States. Authorities say Long, the suspect in the heinous crimes, insisted he was not intentionally targeted by people of Asian descent. Still, police, including Baker, said the investigation was ongoing and the murders could still be classified as a hate crime.
The fact that Long allegedly attacked Asian massage parlors and murdered half a dozen Asian women has caused an uproar online and among community leaders. According to Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that documents discrimination during the pandemic, nearly 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hatred were reported between March 2020 and last month.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Baker appeared to be downplaying Long’s alleged actions, telling reporters that the 21-year-old attributed the crimes to his “sexual addiction” issues. Baker said Long turned to the spas to “take away that temptation.”
Baker’s adopted brother, Anthony Baker, is a Georgia Superior Court judge – and, according to a profile published in January, he was born in Vietnam to a woman married there to an American soldier.
– with reporting by Maxwell Tani and Blake Montgomery