US: Robert Aaron Long, Atlanta spa shooter, sentenced to life imprisonment for four counts of murder

The man who was accused of killing eight people in an Atlanta spa has pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and has been sentenced to a life sentence without parole.

Robert Aaron Long, the accused, was brought in the court through a side entrance on Tuesday near 9:15 am and answered positively when asked if he knew and understood the conditions of a plea agreement.

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Long was accused of murdering eight people, out of which six were Asian women. This incident, which took place in March, had sent shivers around the world and had raised concerns about increasing racial violence in the US.

As Long pleaded guilty to four counts of murder in Cherokee County, he will be facing four consecutive life sentences without parole and 35 years in prison. He also facesfour other murder charges in Fulton County where the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for Long.

Also read | Death penalty, hate crime charges sought in Georgia spa shootings

Long had opened fire at three spa centres and was identified and caught by a state trooper while he was driving on Interstate 75, about 150 miles south of Atlanta in an SUV. Police officers claim Long had admitted that he was on his way to attacking another business that was related to the pornography industry.

Raised in a strict evangelical Christian environment, Long has apparently admitted that he was a sex addict and these attacks were an attempt to remove temptations from his life.