The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Families struggle with tragedy
As loved ones mourn victims, killings spark fear of more violence against Asian Americans.
Yong Yue just wanted to work. A licensed massage therapist, the 63- year- old was laid offff last year when the pandemic hit and was excited to fifinally start shifts at a spa again, her two sons told The Atlanta Journal- Constitution on Friday.
“My mother didn’t do anything wrong,” said Robert Peterson, 38. “And she deserves the recognition that she is a human, she’s a community person like everyone else. None of those people deserved what happened to them.”
The Gwinnett County woman was one of eight people — six of them Asian women — whose lives were cut short Tuesday during a deadly shooting spree at three spas across metro Atlanta. The shootings spurred fear around the world of further violence against Asian Americans, who already had faced surging racist violence amid the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta victims’ loved ones are trying to make sense of the tragedy.
Peterson described his mother as a kind and deeply caring woman. If you stopped by her house, she’d sit you down, ask
if you’d eaten and then insist on a trip to H Mart grocery store so she could make a meal.
“She feeds all my friends,” said Peterson, adding they loved the Korean home cooking she brought to Georgia in the 1980s after meeting her boys’ dad, an American soldier. Elliott Peterson, 42, the couple’s oldest, also served in the U. S. Army before retiring in September.
I nvestigators on Friday also released the names of the other three women killed during Tuesday’s shooting at two Atlanta spas on Piedmont Road. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office identified them as Soon C. Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51.
When Yue wasn’t working, she could be found taking someone flowers, food, gifts or that little extra cash they needed to make rent, Elliott Peterson said in front of his mom’s Duluth home. Otherwise, Yue was probably watching movies, soap operas or reading.
At her side would be her dog, Iyong, a Shih Tzu mix with a diamond- studded pink collar. On Friday morning, a friend took the dog on a walk. When she came back, she leaned her head on Elliott Peterson’s shoulder. She clutched Iyong with both arms to her chest as tears glistened in her eyes.
“Don’t cry,” Elliott Peterson said. “That’s what she would say.”
Grant, a mother of two, lived in Duluth, her son Randy Park said on a fundraising page. She was the only family he and his younger brother had in America and worked hard to provide for them, he wrote.
“She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today,” Park said. “Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world. As much as I want to grieve and process the reality that she is gone, I have a younger brother to take care of and matters to resolve as a result of this tragedy.”
Park told The Associated Press his mother loved disco and club music, often strutting or moonwalking as she did household chores. In the car, she would jam with her sons to tunes blasting over the stereo.
The single mother found ways to enjoy herself despite working “almost every day” to support her children, Park said.
“I learned how to moonwalk because, like, I saw her moonwalking while vacuuming when I was a kid,” he said.
Her job was a sensitive subject, Park said, noting the stigma often associated with massage businesses. Grant reportedly told her sons that they should tell others she worked doing makeup with her friends.
Ultimately, Park said, he didn’t care what she did for a living.
“She loved me and my brother enough to work for us, to dedicate her whole life,” he said. “That’s enough.”
The Gofundme page launched Thursday to help support Park and his brother in the wake of their mother’s death had raised more than $ 1.3 million as of Friday afternoon, and donations continue to pour in.
Five people were shot during the Cherokee County attack; only one survived. Those who died were identified as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44, of Kennesaw. The fifth victim, Elcias Hernandez- Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was injured. He remains at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
The suspect, 21- year- old Robert Aaron Long, was arrested in South Georgia on Tuesday night following the shooting spree that began at an Acworth- area spa and continued in Atlanta at two similar businesses. Cherokee officials said Long told them the shootings were not racially motivated, but a Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office report released Friday lists “Anti- Gender Female” under a category marked “Hate/ Bias.”
Atlanta police said they haven’t ruled out charging the Woodstock- area man with a hate crime.
“Nothing is off the table ,” Atlanta police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Investigators said Long had a sex addiction and regularly patronized the types of businesses targeted in Tuesday’s shootings, reportedly calling them a “temptation he wanted to eliminate.” Atlanta police confirmed he frequented both spas on Piedmont Road: Gold Spa, where three women were shot to death, and Aromatherapy Spa across the street, where officers discovered a fourth woman dead.
According to the Medical Examiner’s Office, three of the women killed in Atlanta were shot in the head, and a fourth died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. The 9 mm handgun used in the shootings had been purchased hours earlier at a Holly Springs gun store.
Greg Hynson saw Xiaojie Tan for the final time last weekend. Tan, known as “Emily” to her friends, would have turned 50 on Thursday. She was among those killed when the alleged gunman opened fire at Youngs Asian Massage, the spa she owned near Acworth.
Hynson, who was in the area last week, figured he’d pop in.
“We said hello, but she was really busy — the shop was always busy — so I told her I would check back with her later,” Hynson said. That time never came. The two met about five years ago through a mutual friend and became fast friends. A former weightlifter, the 54- year- old also got massages at Tan’s spa.
“I consider her dear and close to me,” he said. “She had a heart of gold and was the sweetest, nicest person. She t reated everybody equally.”
None of t hat was a surprise to Jami Webb, Tan’s 29- year- old daughter. She told USA Today that her mother “loved to make friends with all her customers.” She said her mother, who was born in China, was obsessed with the idea of traveling and dreamed of seeing the world. She often asked her customers where they had been.
In response to the shootings, police across metro Atlanta have stepped up patrols in Asian Ameri can communities and around Asian- owned businesses. Departments have also encouraged residents in those communities to report any suspicious activity.