Update 03/19/2021 4:36am:
After coming under fire for his tone-deaf assessment of the Atlanta shooter rampage being the result of a "bad day," Cherokee County Sheriff Jay Baker's past social media post promoting racist, anti-Asian graphic tees have come back to haunt him. As a result, Baker was removed from the case and will no longer deliver briefings and updates about the investigation. Moreover, his future in the department is also being called into question.
Original 03/18/2021 11:20am:
Jay Baker of Georgia’s Cherokee County Sheriff’s office recently gained national attention while addressing the Atlanta-area spa shootings that left eight people, including six Asians, dead. While referring to the suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, Baker was accused of downplaying the situation, stating, "He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did."
After coming under fire for his statement regarding Long, Baker was accused of promoting racist, xenophobic graphic tees that read: "COVID-19 imported virus from CHY-NA." A post on a page purported to be his Facebook page from March last year reads, "Place your order while they last." He followed up a couple of days later, promoting the shirts again, writing, "Love my shirt … Get yours while they last."
Sheriff Frank Reynolds responded to the Daily Beast questioning if the Sheriff's office had looked into the situation, stating, "I will have to contact him, but thank you for bringing that to my attention."
Source: The Daily Beast
