Helped hide customer during rampage
New details have emerged about the victims of Tuesday’s spa massacre in Atlanta — including that one of those slain in the attack died a hero helping to save her client’s life.
Survivor Marcus Lyon, 31, told the local NBC-TV affiliate that he was a first-time customer at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth — and was two minutes into his rubdown when gunfire erupted on Tuesday.
“When I first heard the gunshot go out, I got back up,” Lyon said. “The [masseuse] got in front of me and was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’ telling me to hold on for a second.”
He said the woman then opened the door and Lyon dove to the ground and hid behind the massage bed to shield himself from the gunfire.
“Once I hid behind the bed I heard another gunshot and I saw her fall,” he recalled. “She got shot in the head.
“I could see her bleeding out. From there I keep hearing more gunshots go off,” he added. “I felt she kind of saved my life.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office identified the four victims of the Ac worth spa attack as Xi aojie Tan ,49, DaoyougF eng ,44, Paul Andre Mic he ls ,54, and De laina Ashley Yaun ,33.
Authorities said accused gunman Robert Aaron Long then drove to Atlanta, where he opened fire at two more salons — Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa — and allegedly killed four more people.
Those victims have been identified as Hyung Jung Grant, 51, Soon Chung Park, 74, Yong Ae Yue, 63, and 69-year-old Sun Cha Kim.
“My grandmother was an angel,” Kim’s granddaughter wrote on a GoFundMe page established for her family. “To have her taken away in such a horrific manner is so unbearable to think about.”
She said her grandmother had come to the US from Korea.
“As an immigrant, all my grandmother ever wanted in life was to grow old with my grandfather and watch her children and grandchildren live the life she never got to have,” she wrote.
Six of the eight victims in the deadly spree were Asian American.
On Sunday, calls to have the attack classified as a hate crime continued to intensify, even as federal authorities announced that they lack evidence to definitely say it was motivated by race.
“Look, law enforcement will go through the work that they need to do,” US Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said on “Meet the Press.” “But we all know hate when we see it.”
Long, 21, is charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in the attacks.