Dallas salon shooting suspect had delusions about Asian people, girlfriend tells police
Dallas police have arrested a suspect accused of shooting three women at a Korean hair salon and are investigating his possible involvement in other racially-motivated shootings targeting people of Asian descent.
In an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram, the suspect was identified as 36-year-old Jeremy Theron Smith. His girlfriend told police that Smith had been having delusions about Asian people after he was in a car crash two years ago with an Asian man, according to the affidavit.
Police said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that they are investigating the possibility that the salon shooting was the result of a mental illness but that, for now, evidence points them to believe the attack was a racist hate crime.
On May 11, a gunman walked into a hair salon on Royal Lane near Interstate 35E. The man fired 13 shots inside the salon, which is located in an Asian-American community in Dallas that is predominantly Korean, and injured three Korean women before fleeing the scene in a maroon minivan, police said.
The Dallas Police Department announced the arrest in a social media post Tuesday morning and released court documents and further details later in the day after the suspect was interviewed and processed.
Smith faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the salon shooting.
According to the affidavit, he fired over a dozen shots from a .22-caliber rifle inside Hair World Salon, striking three of seven people inside the business, before fleeing the scene in a red 2004 Honda Odyssey. One woman was shot in the forearm, a second was shot in the foot and the third woman was shot in the back.
After speaking with a witness who saw part of his license plate, police began tracking Smith within two days after the shooting, the affidavit stated. Police took him into custody Monday in Desoto, where he spoke to police without an attorney, his warrant stated.
Police also used the luggage rack and a sticker decal on the vehicle to identify it, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during Tuesday’s news conference.
In his interview with detectives, Smith admitted that the van belonged to him and the vehicle only had one key, according to the affidavit. He told police that he was the only person in possession of the van and that no one else had access to it.
When asked about being near the salon at the time of the shooting, Smith told police he was looking for a business to repair a broken glass pane, the affidavit said. He also told detectives he owns a .380 handgun and “a .22 caliber rifle that looks like an ‘AK-47,’” according to the court documents.
Police said they found a .380 handgun, a gun magazine with four live rounds and a box of .380 ammunition with six live rounds after searching Smith’s vehicle.
Also interviewed by police, Smith’s girlfriend said that for two years he has had delusions about Asian people after being involved in a car crash with an Asian man.
When Smith is around an Asian person, his girlfriend told police, he has had “near panic attacks,” adding that Smith has also had “delusions that the Asian mob is after him or attempting to harm him,” the affidavit stated. She also said Smith had been “admitted to several mental health facilities” because of the delusions, and had been fired from a job at an Ulta Beauty warehouse for “verbally attacking” his Asian boss.
Police said it is too early to tell if this could be a mental health case rather than a hate crime.
“Right now it’s still an issue of hate,” Garcia said. “Right now it’s an issue of hate crime. Our community sees it as a hate crime. I see it as a hate crime.”
Last week, Garcia said the salon shooting may be connected to two other recent incidents where shots were fired at businesses run by Asian-American community members. Police suspect the shootings may be related after saying the driver in each of the incidents had a similar vehicle.
“On April 2, 2022, at about 11:13 a.m., a vehicle fired shots as it drove past a strip mall of Asian-run businesses located at 2208 Royal Lane. Witnesses reported the driver was in a red minivan. A month later, on May 10, 2022, a suspect in a burgundy van or car drove by and shot into an Asian-run business near 4849 Sunnyvale Street. Three people were in the back part of the building and were not injured,” police said in a news release. “The next day, on May 11, 2022, at 2216 Royal Lane, a suspect entered the business and shot three victims. A witness described the suspect running from that business to a red older style minivan and sped away westbound on Royal Lane.”
Prior to linking the three shootings together, police initially announced that they didn’t believe the salon shooting was racially motivated.
The shootings are now being investigated as possible hate crimes.
“Dallas Police have reached out to our partners to make them aware of this possible connection and to ask for their assistance — this includes the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” police said Friday in a written statement. “Through our Community Engagement, we have, or are in the process of notifying our Asian community and business leaders and we have also reached out to the Anti-Defamation League, the mayor, the Mayor’s Hate Crime Advisory Council, and scheduled a Korean/American Safety Town Hall meeting.”
Garcia said Tuesday police are still investigating, especially with federal law enforcement partners, the April 2 and May 10 shootings and any possible connections to the shooting at the hair salon. He said he wasn’t ready to talk about how solid those connections are, citing an ongoing investigation.
At the town hall meeting Monday night, the FBI, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said they are opening a federal hate crime investigation.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, reports have risen of violence, harassment and hate incidents against Asian Americans. Verbal harassment and deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been a majority of the incidents, followed by physical assaults and being coughed at or spat on, USA Today reported last year. A majority of the victims have been women.
Between March 19, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021, there were at least 10,905 hate incidents against Asian Americans in the U.S., according to Stop AAPI Hate. Texas ranked fourth in the number of reported hate incidents during that stretch, with around 425.
Police in Dallas said they are hopeful that the suspect will not be released on bond and that they will continue to increase outreach to the wider Dallas community and specifically the Asian-American community, encouraging them to report anything strange to police to increase their ability to provide security.
“There’s lives that have been changed forever because of this, so we need to do our best to continue to be present and to be vigilant,” Garcia said.
Star-Telegram Service Reporter Brayden Garcia contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 6:49 AM.
