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A man accused of going on a shooting spree across Alabama and Georgia and injuring five people admitted to police that the crime was racially motivated and he was targeting white men.

“Basically, he explained throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him and also what he described as military-looking white males had taken from him,” Detective Brandon Lockhart said of Justin Tyran Roberts during a preliminary hearing.

Roberts, a 39-year-old black man, was arrested in connection to the shooting spree that left five people injured over three separate incidents in Georgia and Alabama. Police say all five victims are expected to recover.

Lockhart testified that Roberts told police he was previously attacked in a wooded area by white men using a slingshot, leaving him with wounds that became infected under the skin. However, police say they found no injuries on Roberts’s body.

A lawyer for Roberts has requested a mental health evaluation for her client, arguing Roberts was "suffering from delusions" and a "disconnect from reality."

“The officer’s testimony has demonstrated that Mr. Roberts is having delusions and a disconnect from reality,” the lawyer argued.

Lockhart testified that Roberts was intent on shooting white men, saying in court of one victim that "I had to have him."

Judge Julius Hunter ruled that there was probable cause to send Roberts’s case to Muscogee Superior Court.

The alleged racially motivated attack comes at a time of increased racial tensions, with widespread reports of a spike in violent attacks against Asian Americans, which have plagued some of the country’s largest cities.