Long claimed responsibility for the shootings, according to the sheriff's office in Cherokee County, where he faces four counts of murder with malice, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of using a firearm while committing a felony. He also has been charged with four counts of murder in Atlanta, police there said.

But Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant has said it is still too early to know a motive, and Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said the investigation is ongoing and appropriate charges will be brought.

Also Friday, the church attended by the suspect released a statement condemning the killings "in the strongest possible terms" and saying "no blame can be placed upon the victims."

In its statement, Crabapple First Baptist Church confirmed Long's family were members, and said the killings were the "result of a sinful heart and depraved mind." It said the violence and Long's actions also "directly contradict his own confession of faith" and were "antithetical to everything that we believe and teach as a church."

Meanwhile, some public officials say they're pressing investigators to consider hate crime charges against Long.

During Biden and Harris's visit Atlanta on Friday, community leaders talked with the President and vice president for more than an hour about their concerns about crimes against Asians and other issues, Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

While in Atlanta, Biden and Harris did not explicitly state that they considered the shootings a hate crime. But they noted that whatever the shooter's motivation, the killings come as hate crimes are rising against Asian Americans.

"The conversation we had today with the (Asian American and Pacific Islander) leaders, and that we're hearing all across the country, is that hate and violence often hide in plain sight. It's often met with silence," Biden said. "That's been true throughout our history, but that has to change because our silence is complicity."

While FBI Director Christopher Wray said the attacks don't appear to be racially motivated, advocacy groups have argued that it is too soon to make that determination. And shootings don't have to be racially motivated to constitute a hate crime in Georgia.

Long had previously frequented the two Atlanta spas, and he bought the gun used in the shooting the day of the incident, Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said Thursday.

Communities and nation grapple with fear and grief

Flowers have lined the businesses that were the scenes of the violence, but with the rise in animosity and hate directed at Asians and Asian Americans, the emotional toll has been felt across the nation.

"Such vicious, unconscionable acts of violence cut at the very core of our country and the values on which it was founded," former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday. "As we await the findings of a thorough investigation, the critical work to combat the haunting rise of hatred against the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community must intensify with the immediacy this latest tragedy commands."

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds visited a candlelight vigil Thursday outside Youngs Asian Spa. Reynolds told reporters he attended to let the Asian American community know that "we have them in our hearts and our prayers and we're so sorry for the loss of life."

A vigil was also held Thursday outside of one of the other shooting sites, Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta.

"Our hearts go out to the loved ones of those we lost and our nation mourns with you," he said.

Victim's husband says he heard gunfire from a separate room

The names of all eight people slain have been released.

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44, were fatally shot at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County.

Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was also shot but survived.

"About an hour in ... I heard the shots. I didn't see anything, only I started to think it was in the room where my wife was," he told the newspaper.

"(The shooter) took the most valuable thing I had in my life," Gonzalez said. "He left me with only pain."

Gonzalez said he was detained by authorities following the shooting and didn't know his wife was killed until later.

When law enforcement arrived, he was put in the back of a vehicle, Gonzalez told the Spanish-language newspaper. "They had me in a patrol car the whole time until the investigation led them to the suspect and to what happened."

"When they found out I was the husband, they told me she was dead. I wanted to know before," Gonzalez said.

It is not clear how long he was detained by authorities. Attempts to reach Gonzalez have been unsuccessful. CNN has reached out to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office for comment but has not yet heard back.

Victim's son mourns his 'strongest influence'

About 30 miles away and within an hour of the first shooting, four Asian women were killed in Atlanta -- three at the Gold Massage Spa, and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, authorities said.

The four Atlanta victims were: Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.

Of those four, three died of gunshot wounds to the head, and one died of a gunshot wound to the chest, the medical examiner's office said.

"She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today," Park wrote.

The GoFundMe page, set up for Grant's two sons, had raised more than $1.5 million from more than 40,000 donors as of Friday evening. GoFundMe told CNN the page is verified; Park did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

The page says the donated money will pay for food, rent and other monthly bills. It says the brothers now only have each other in the US, with every other relative in South Korea.

"Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world," Park wrote.

Correction: An earlier version of this story failed to list the full names of three of the victims. It has been updated to include full and correct names for Yong Ae Yue, Hyun Jung Grant and Soon Chung Park.