Hundreds gather to call for action after shooting spree that left 8 people dead
ATLANTA — After a week of pain, fear and mourning, Georgia’s capital city hosted a downtown march and rally Saturday to protest the killing of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, by a gunman who targeted three Atlanta-area massage businesses.
Hundreds of activists chanted, “Stop Asian hate,” as they departed Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta, bound for the state Capitol, where they would link up with hundreds more for a rally in the wake of a shooting spree that left eight people dead.
The roaming demonstration kicked off after a series of speeches and tracked along downtown sidewalks, past movie sets and the transit station.
Bobbing picket signs and using megaphones, activists shouted messages like, “Asians are not a virus.”
The protest was being billed as a #StopAsianHate event that would allow people to “come together to grieve, heal and support.”
Around midday, the crowd from Woodruff Park joined hundreds of people gathered in Liberty Plaza, in the shadow of Georgia’s Gold Dome.
State Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to be elected to the Georgia Legislature, lamented Saturday that the victims of the shootings “had no one in their community to watch their back, and we are left with deep rage and grief and sorrow.” Lawmakers, she said, must enact changes to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated.
Sen. Raphael Warnock said, “We need reasonable gun reform.” He added that stronger hate crime laws were needed.
Sen. Jon Ossoff echoed those sentiments, adding, “Let’s build a state and a nation where you can register to vote the day of an election, but you can’t buy a gun the day you plan to kill.”
At Liberty Plaza, many people who were there said this was their first protest. Before Tuesday, Elisa Park, 54, from Marietta, kept her head down when she heard of or experienced antiAsian sentiment.
“I was staying in silence for a while, you know, sweep it away, keep head down, work hard,” she said. “But not this time.”
Park said she came to the rally to put pressure on lawmakers to stop the violence against Asians. Park added that she was not the only one to live in heightened fear since the shooting. Her co-workers and single female friends of Asian descent, she said, are afraid to simply walk their dog alone.
This is Park’s first protest.
Her aunt was afraid for her safety, Park said. She did not know what to expect, but she was moved by the sea of people who came out in support.
“It’s not just Asians here. There are African American people, white people, Latino people,” she said. “It’s really empowering.”
Jane Zhong, 60, from East Cobb, a first-time protester, wore a white tea flower as part of a Chinese tradition to commemorate those who passed away.
For Zhong, the death of one of the spa shooting victims, Xiaojie Tan, hit too close to home. Both of them are Chinese immigrants and mothers with a daughter who graduated from college last year.
“I knew I had to show up,” she said.
Zhong, who heard about the rally through WeChat, a Chinese messenger service, said, “I’m here to express my anger.”