The FBI has said it is investigating as a possible hate crime the 2017 killing of a Chinese American teenager in Colorado, who local authorities have said was purposefully set on fire and burned alive in her family's mountain community home.
In December 2017, 17-year-old Maggie Long was found dead in the home days after it was set on fire in Bailey, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Denver. The fire was declared an arson, and Long's death was ruled a homicide.
On Monday, the FBI told the CBS News station KCNC-TV in Denver that it was looking into her death as a "hate crime matter". It didn't provide any information about why agents were looking at as such.
"The FBI is committed to combating hate crimes and condemns violence directed toward any individual or group," Michael Schneider, the special agent in charge of the agency's Denver field office, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "We are grateful for the community's support of Maggie's family and their patience with the ongoing investigation."
The FBI's decision comes amid a nationwide increase in incidents against Asian Americans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes as the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and sent it to President Joe Biden for his signature.
The US Senate approved the legislation last month. It creates a position at the Justice Department to streamline the review of such crimes and expands the channels to report them.
Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw has said that Long was "purposely'' set on fire and burned alive.
The FBI had initially called it a "crime of opportunity" because several items were also stolen from the house at the time, including jade figurines, a Beretta handgun, an AK-47-style rifle, 2,000 rounds of ammunition and a safe, according to the agency's Denver field office, which released composite sketches of three male suspects in November 2019.
No arrests have been made. A $75,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case, the FBI said.
According to investigators, Long, a high school senior, left Platte Canyon High School on Dec 1, 2017, with plans to return for an evening concert she was helping organize. She wanted to pick up water and cookies for the audience. Long stopped at home, and when she stepped inside, at least three men, and possibly a fourth, already had broken into the house and were present.
McGraw said classifying the slaying as a hate crime will allow more resources to be put on the case.
"Having that extra manpower will help us go in different directions. It's an option we have never explored before, but we're looking at now to see if it is a real possibility," he said.
Maggie's sister, Connie Long, 27, said on Tuesday that she was told by an investigator with the bureau that the decision to treat the homicide as a hate crime was a tactical one that would provide law enforcement officers with more money and resources to try to solve the case. It wasn't prompted by a specific development in the case, she told The New York Times.
"With the media attention on anti-Asian hate in the country, there has been another look at our case with that lens," she told the Times. "It is definitely a new angle that may bring new answers."
She said that she had not considered at the time of her sister's killing that it could have been racially motivated but said that her family had been keenly aware that few people in their small town looked like them.
"Me personally, I did not go there in my mind," she said. "I did not think this was a hate crime or overt racism. We definitely did take our culture into consideration."
Maggie's parents were born in a Chinese community in North Vietnam and came to the United States during the Vietnam War, Connie Long said. They owned two local Chinese restaurants and a liquor store.
Lyanna Long told KCNC-TV that the announcement of a possible hate-crime element was "a little surprising", but also in some ways "makes sense".
"This is an angle that wasn't looked into in the past, and at this point it is no stone left unturned," she told the station. "Looking at the extent of violence in this crime, that is certainly an angle to look more closely into.
