The only person to survive the Atlanta mass shooting that left eight people dead in the city of Georgia has said he wants the killer to be "ultimately judged by God". 

Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz made the remarks after a prosecutor announced she will be pursuing the death penalty for Robert Aaron Long's crimes. 

Long, 21, opened fire at three massage parlours in the city of Georgia in March arguing he wanted to protect himself from sexual temptation.  

The son of a pastor, Long had been raised Christian and was a member of Crabapple First Baptist church where he served as a youth leader for a season. Shortly after the shootings, the church withdrew his membership and described the shootings as "antithetical to everything that we believe and teach as a church". 

Long's survivor was shot in the face with the bullet travelling through his throat and it is currently stuck in his stomach. Hernandez-Ortiz was at one of the three massage parlours when he came face to face with Long.
 
"I heard the shots fired as I was inside the room. I opened the door. I could see the victims. I saw the attacker and I looked at him eye to eye. I begged him not to shoot me," Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz told WSDTV. 

Hernandez-Ortiz went on to say he believed having survived was a miracle of God. 

"People don't typically get shot in the face and survive, without there being a miracle. So I want him to also understand the miracle of God, and ultimately be judged by that God," Hernandez-Ortiz said. 

"I don't have any hate in my heart toward the attacker, but certainly at the end of the day, I want to see justice done," he continued. 

During a news conference, District Attorney Fannin Willis said: "Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek [the death penalty]  unfortunately, a case has arisen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants the ultimate penalty, and we shall seek it."