Ashley Collman
The husband of Georgia spa shooting victim Delaina Ashley Yaun says officers handcuffed him for hours before telling him his wife died
Mario González's wife, Delaina Ashley Yaun, died in the spa shootings in Georgia last week.
He told Mundo Hispánico that officers handcuffed him for four hours and treated him like a suspect.
"Maybe because I'm Mexican, I don't know. Because the truth is they treated me badly," he said.
A man whose wife died in the Atlanta-area spa shootings last week told the news website Mundo Hispánico that officers handcuffed him for four hours and treated him like a suspect while refusing to tell him what had happened to his wife.
Mario González and Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, who were married last year, were getting massages in separate rooms at Young's Asian Massage when gunshots rang out.
González told Mundo Hispánico that he took cover in his locked room, paralyzed with fear, hoping his wife would be OK.
"I did not open the door out of fear," González told the outlet.
-Jewel Wicker (@jewelwickershow) March 18, 2021
Law-enforcement officers arrived shortly after the gunman left, and they handcuffed González, he told Mundo Hispánico.
González said he was kept like this for four hours while officers ignored his requests to be taken to his wife or to tell him whether she was alive or dead.
Alex Acosta, who works next door to the spa, told the Daily Mail that he came outside after the shooting and recognized González.
"Mario looked at me and he told me his wife was still inside. He told me to tell the police," Acosta said.
When Acosta's wife told an officer that González's wife had also been inside and that González wanted to know what had happened to her, the officer said they knew, Acosta said.
González told Mundo Hispánico that hours later the police told him his wife had died.
González suggested that his race may have played a role in the officers' treatment of him.
"Maybe because I'm Mexican, I don't know. Because the truth is they treated me badly," he told Mundo Hispánico.
Video: The real cost of the police
González's niece, Jessica González, was more certain. "He's very upset and angry about that," she told the Daily Mail. "He was handcuffed for something he didn't do. I think it was a racial thing. He was the only one left in handcuffs."
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office has been criticized over its handling of the shooting investigation. A spokesman, Capt. Jay Baker, was replaced after describing the suspect as having had "a really bad day."
It was later revealed that Baker had shared a picture of a T-shirt with anti-Asian messaging about the coronavirus outbreak, calling the novel coronavirus an "imported virus from Chy-na."
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on González's remarks.
Yaun leaves behind a 13-year-old son from a previous relationship, and her and González's 8-month-old daughter.
González said he was worried about how he'd provide for his family without his wife. "What I need most right now is support," González told Mundo Hispánico.
A GoFundMe set up to raise money for Yaun's funeral had raised more than $100,000 as of Monday morning.
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