President Joseph Biden has ordered flags lowered to honor the eight people shot to death earlier this week in the Atlanta, Ga., area.

Earlier today, the president issued the brief proclamation, which states in part:

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, March 22, 2021.”

Flags are to also be lowered at all US embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

Following suit, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont also directed US and state flags in Connecticut to fly at half staff, for the same period.

Accordingly, since no flag should fly higher than the US flag, all other flags — including state, municipal, corporate, or otherwise — should also be lowered during this same duration of time.

According to the Associated Press, Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Ga., was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted during the coronavirus pandemic.

The attacks began Tuesday evening, March 16, when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor near Woodstock, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, authorities said, killing four.

Long reportedly then traveled about 30 miles, to Atlanta, where a call came in about a robbery at Gold Spa and three women were shot to death. Another woman was fatally shot at the Aromatherapy Spa across the street.

Long was arrested hours later by Crisp County deputies and state troopers. He refused to stop on a highway and officers bumped the back of his car, causing him to crash, Sheriff Billy Hancock said.

Officers found Long thanks to help from his parents, who recognized him from surveillance footage posted by authorities and gave investigators his cellphone information, which they used to track him, said Reynolds, the Cherokee County sheriff.

A day after the shootings, investigators were trying to unravel what might have compelled the 21-year-old male to commit the worst mass killing in the US in almost two years.

Long told police that Tuesday’s attack was not racially motivated. He claimed to have a “sex addiction,” and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation. But those statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism given the locations and that six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said that regardless of the shooter’s motivation, “it is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it has to stop.”

President Biden called the attack “very, very troublesome.”

“We don’t yet know the motive, but what we do know is that the Asian-American community is feeling enormous pain tonight. The recent attacks against the community are un-American. They must stop,” Biden tweeted Wednesday.