The Atlanta-area shootings suspect told police he had a sex addiction and may have been to the massage parlors before

• The 21-year-old suspect in the Atlanta-area massage-parlor shootings said he had a sex addiction.
• It's too soon to say if the attacks were racially motivated, officials said.
• Six of the eight victims in the shootings were Asian women.

Law-enforcement officials investigating the Atlanta-area shootings that killed eight people said the suspect told them he had a sex addiction.

The information was disclosed at a press conference on Wednesday, the morning after the shootings. Six of the victims were Asian women, officials said.

Robert Aaron Long was arrested in connection to the shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.

The shootings prompted a national response from politicians and others calling the attacks the most recent, and most severe, example of the wave of violence against Asian Americans. But law enforcement at the press conference said it looked at this point that Long's motive was more likely tied to his possible sex addiction than race.

Officials said Long told investigators that he may have previously been to the massage parlors where the shootings took place.

Rodney Bryant, the chief of the Atlanta Police Department, said it was not yet possible to say whether the killings were racially motivated, citing how early in the investigative process his officers were.

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said "the indicators right now are that it might not be" racially motivated. "We believe he frequented these places in the past and may have been lashing out," he added.

Reporters asked whether there was any indication that Long previously had sex at the massage parlors.

"We are not about to get into victim blaming, victim shaming," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in response.

Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, was arrested about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after a short car chase on the interstate. He was on the way to Florida, where he likely would have attempted another shooting at a porn business, Lance Bottoms said.

Those who know him, as well as social-media accounts that appear to belong to him, indicated he's a devout Christian and gun enthusiast, according to reporting from The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and Insider.