The other three are believed to be Americans of Korean ethnicity, Kwangsuk Lee, the deputy consulate general of the Republic of Korea in Atlanta, told CNN on Friday.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry has decided not to release further information about the victims, including their names, “to protect the privacy of the victims and to respect requests from family members,” Lee said. The South Korean consulate in Atlanta received information about the four victims of Korean descent from Atlanta police on Friday, he said.
Some officials have appealed against hate crime charges against the suspect, who authorities said may have traveled to carry out more attacks when he was arrested.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested that an investigation into the case be conducted as soon as possible. The Ministry plans to provide the necessary support for the funeral process.
In Cherokee County, the suspect faces four counts of malicious murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of using a firearm while committing an offense. He was also charged with four counts of murder in connection with the two spa shootings in Atlanta, police there said.
Officials condemn rising anti-Asian hate crimes
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to know the suspect’s motive, and Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said the investigation was continuing and appropriate charges would be instituted.
But Jim Clemente, a retired FBI investigating agent, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the level of planning seen in his actions shows that the suspect was motivated by more than just a ‘bad day’.
“His actions show that on this particular day he targeted a specific type of person, and did so not only in one place, but also to a second and a third place,” Clemente said.
While in Atlanta, Biden and Harris did not explicitly state that they considered the shooting a hate crime. But they noted that the killings regardless of the shooter’s motivation, as hate crimes against Asian Americans increase.
“The conversation we have today with the (Asian American and Pacific Island) leaders and what we hear across the country is that hatred and violence often hide in plain sight. It is often done in silence,” Biden said. said. “It has been true in our history, but it must change because our silence is complicity.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she was not surprised by the attack that killed so many Asian women.
“We went up last year after more and more violent hate crimes against AAPIs,” Duckworth said.
Victims leave families behind: ‘She was one of my best friends’
The names of all eight people killed were announced.
Delaina Ashley Yaun (33) of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels (54) of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan (49) of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44, were fatally shot during Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County.
Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz (30) of Acworth was also shot at Youngs Asian Massage but survived.
About 30 kilometers away and within an hour after the first shooting, four Asian women were killed in Atlanta – three in the Gold Massage Spa and one in the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, authorities said.
The four victims from Atlanta were: Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Of the four, three died from gunshot wounds to the head and one died to a gunshot wound to the chest, the medical examiner’s office said.
“She was one of my best friends and had the strongest influence on who we are today,” Park wrote.
The GoFundMe page, set up for Grant’s two sons, has raised more than $ 2 million from more than 50,000 donors since Saturday morning. GoFundMe told CNN the page was verified; Park did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.
The page says the money donated will pay for food, rent and other monthly bills. It says that the brothers now only have each other in the US, with every other family member in South Korea.
“By losing her, I have a new lens on the amount of hatred that exists in our world,” Park wrote.
“About an hour inside … I heard the shots. I saw nothing, only I started to think it was in the room where my wife was,” he told the newspaper.
“(The shooter) took the most valuable thing I’ve had in my life,” Gonzalez said. “He just left me in pain.”
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Gregory Lemos, Audrey Ash, Nicole Chavez, Gisela Crespo, Nicquel Ellis, Jamiel Lynch, Paul P. Murphy, Raja Razek, Casey Tolan, Amir Vera, Amanda Watts and Holly Yan contributed to this report.