Protesters gather in Atlanta to mourn victims, rally against anti-Asian hate
Slain spa worker was single mother who toiled tirelessly to support kids
ATLANTA — Hyun Jung Grant loved disco and club music, often strutting or moonwalking while doing household chores and jamming with her sons to tunes blasting in the car.
The single mother found ways to enjoy herself despite working “almost every day” to support two sons, said the older son, 22-year-old Randy Park.
“I learned how to moonwalk because, like, I saw her moonwalking while vacuuming when I was a kid,” Park said.
On Tuesday night, Park was at home playing video games when he heard a gunman had opened fire at the Atlanta massage business where his mother worked. He rushed to the scene and then to a police station to find out more information. But it was through word of mouth that he learned his mother was dead.
Grant, 51, was among eight people killed by gunfire at three Atlanta-area massage businesses. The Fulton County medical examiner released her identity Friday along with those of three other victims: Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
Authorities in nearby Cherokee County had previously identified the others as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49, who owned one of the massage businesses.
Seven of the slain were women, and six of them were of Asian descent. Police charged a 21-year-old white man with the killings.
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Michels owned a business installing security systems, a trade he learned after moving to the Atlanta area more than 25 years ago.
He’d been talking about switching to a new line of work but never got the chance. He was fatally shot at Youngs Asian Massage on Tuesday along with three others.
“From what I understand, he was at the spa that day doing some work for them,” said Michels’ younger brother, John Michels of Commerce, Mich.
Paul Michels also might have been talking with the spa’s owner about how the business operates, his brother said, because he had been thinking about opening a spa himself.
“His age caught up to him. You get to a point where you get tired of climbing up and down ladders,” John Michels said. “He was actually looking to start his own massage spa. That’s what he was talking about last year.”
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They day before she was killed, Yaun dropped by Rita Barron’s boutique to say hello and show photos of her 8-month-old daughter.
“She told me, ‘I’m happy. I want another baby,’ ” said Barron, who had gotten to know Yaun from eating at the Waffle House where the new mother worked.
Yuan and her new husband returned Tuesday to the shopping center where Gabby’s Boutique is located, only this time they headed next door to Youngs Asian Massage. They had planned it as a day for Yaun to relax while a relative watched their baby girl.
Barron and her husband, Alejandro Acosta, heard gunshots from inside the boutique. She called 911, and after police arrived Acosta watched them bring people out of the business, some bleeding and wounded. Among those who walked out was Yaun’s husband, unhurt but distraught. His wife had been killed.
“As you can imagine, he’s totally destroyed, without strength, doesn’t want to talk with anybody,” Acosta said.
Family members said Yaun and her husband were first-time customers at Youngs, eager for a chance to unwind.
“They’re innocent. They did nothing wrong,” Yaun’s weeping mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. “I just don’t understand why he took my daughter.”