Flags lowered to half staff marking tragedy for Asian community

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In a memorandum issued Thursday (Mar. 18th) and released that afternoon, Gov. Lemanu Peleti Palepoi Sialega Mauga ordered the United States flag be flown at half-staff until sunset on Monday, Mar. 22nd “as a mark of respect for the victims of the tragedy in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area”.

“As we reflect upon this tragedy and consider the loss of life and the impacts on the affected survivors, let us each take a moment to give thanks to our God for his continued blessings upon our Territory,” the governor said.

Lemanu’s order is pursuant to a US President Joe Biden’s Proclamation issued Mar. 18th as a mark of respect for the victims of the “senseless acts of violence” on Mar. 16th in the Atlanta Metropolitan area.

The Associated Press reported that 21-year old Robert Aaron Long was charged Wednesday in Atlanta with the killing of eight people — many of them women of Asian descent — at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.

The killings horrified the Asian American community, which saw the shootings as an attack on them, given a recent wave of assaults that coincided with the spread of the coronavirus across the United States, according to the AP, which also reported that Long, is white.