A county grand jury in the U.S. state of Georgia has indicted a man accused of killing eight people, including four women of Korean descent, on murder charges. 

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that a Fulton County grand jury indicted Robert Aaron Long in the March 16 shooting spree at three Atlanta-area Asian spas. 

During a news conference, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed her intent to seek a hate crime sentence enhancement and the death penalty for the 22-year-old suspect. 

The shootings, which claimed the lives of six Asian women, drew strong suspicion that it was a racially motivated hate crime, but Georgia’s new hate crime law does not provide for a stand-alone charge. 

Under the law, only after a person is convicted of a crime can a jury then determine whether it’s motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty.

Willis said the charges as well as the decisions to seek the death penalty and a sentencing enhancement under the hate crime law sends the message that “everyone within this community is valued.”