ATLANTA (AP) – Mothers, grandmothers and a brother. They loved cooking, dancing, singing and traveling. They worked long hours, sometimes in institutions their children little understood. These are the eight people who were shot dead at three massage parlors in Atlanta. Seven of those killed were women, and six of them were of Asian descent. Police have charged a 21-year-old white man with the murder, saying he was solely responsible for the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since 2019. In the days since the shooting, a fuller picture of almost all of the victims has emerged. The exception is 44-year-old Daoyou Feng, an employee at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock about whom little is known.
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On Sunday, 63-year-old Yong Ae Yue had to buy groceries and cook Korean food for her family. Instead, family members mourned her death Tuesday at the Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved mother, and words cannot adequately describe our grief,” her sons said in a statement issued by attorney BJay Pak.
Yue emigrated from South Korea to the United States and was for a time married to Mac Peterson of Columbus, who once served at Fort Fortning in Georgia City.
“Mom was an amazing woman who loved to introduce our family and friends to her homemade Korean food and Korean karaoke,” Rob Peterson, one of Yue’s sons, said in a call to raise money as a ‘amazing woman’. ‘Will miss joining mom at her weekly Sunday routine at the grocery store and traditional Korean dinner. She was always kind and willing to help everyone she encountered. ‘
Yue was a licensed massage therapist in Georgia who owned a home in the suburb of Peachtree Corners. Family members reached there declined to comment.
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A granddaughter praises Suncha Kim’s love and regrets that she will not be able to ‘let’ her children and grandchildren live the life she never got. ‘
Kim, 69, was one of three women killed at the Gold Spa in Atlanta.
Regina Song wrote that her grandmother was born in Seoul and came to the United States and spoke little English, while doing various jobs to take care of her husband, son, and daughter.
“It took tremendous courage and my grandmother was a warrior,” Song wrote.
Family members told The Washington Post that Kim was a Catholic and naturalized American citizen who offered her time and helped raise money for various causes. Relatives said Kim won the President’s award for volunteer service for her efforts to help feed the homeless in the Washington DC area.
“She was pure-hearted and the most selfless woman I have ever known,” her granddaughter wrote. “She represented everything I wanted to be as a woman, without a shred of hatred or bitterness in her heart.”
“She never forgot to call me once a week to say ‘Stay strong in life … if you’re happy, I’m happy.”
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Soon, Chung Park spent much of her life in New York and northern New Jersey before moving to Atlanta, son-in-law Scott Lee told The New York Times and The Washington Post.
In Atlanta, the 74-year-old Park settles in a corridor that includes Korean businesses in the suburb of Duluth in Gwinnett County. Although she had family members in the New York area, she made a new life here, with 38-year-old Gwangho Lee telling The Daily Beast that he accepted Park’s marriage proposal after the two met in 2017.
Park was the day manager at the Gold Spa and cooks for employees. Lee, a busy driver, told The Daily Beast he was already on his way to Gold Spa when he received texts about an apparent robbery, and tried to revive Park while a police officer was standing there after he arrived there.
She was described as exceptionally youthful looking for her age, fit and active, a former dancer and a hard worker,
“She just loved working,” Scott Lee told The New York Times. ” It was not for the money. She just wanted a little job for her life. ‘
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Hyun Jung Grant was very fond of disco and club music, while regularly walking around or walking on the moon while doing household chores and jamming with her sons in a way in the car.
The single found ways to enjoy herself despite the fact that she wanted to support two boys “almost every day,” said the older boy, 22-year-old Randy Park.
“I learned how to walk the moon because I saw his moon while vacuuming when I was a kid,” Park said.
Park was at home playing video games Tuesday night when he heard an armed man set fire to the Gold Spa where his mother worked. He rushed to the scene and then to a police station for more information. But it is through word of mouth that he learns that his mother is dead.
Her work has been a sensitive topic, Park said, noting the stigma often associated with massage parlors. She told her sons to tell others that she had done makeup with her friends.
Ultimately, Park said, he can not care what she does for her job.
“She loved me and my brother enough to work for us and dedicate her whole life,” he said. “That’s enough.”
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Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, an entrepreneur who built several businesses after arriving in the United States, knew little about the country. He is remembered for being dedicated to her work and her family.
The 49-year-old Youngs Asian Massage was near Woodstock, where she was shot dead two days shortly after her 50th birthday. She leaves behind a daughter who recently graduated from the University of Georgia, Jami Webb. According to USA Today, Tan was twice married, first to Michael Webb, whom she met in her hometown of Nanning. Later she married Jason Wang. She also owned Wang’s Feet and Body Massage in Kennesaw when she died.
“She worked a lot, and she was the kind of lady she wanted to depend on herself,” Wang told The Washington Post. Tan used to work and own a nail salon.
Tan regularly visited her mother and other family members in China.
“She always said ‘our family,'” Michael Webb told USA Today. “Even when we were divorced, she would say, ‘Our family.’ ‘Because that’s how she was. ‘
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Paul Andre Michels owned a business that installs security systems, a profession he learned after moving to the Atlanta area more than 25 years ago.
He talked about switching to a new line, but never got the chance. He was fatally shot along with three others on Youngs Asian Massage on Tuesday.
“As far as I understand, he was in the spa that day to do work for them,” said Michels’ younger brother, John Michels of Commerce, Michigan.
Paul Michels may also have talked to the spa owner about how the business works, his brother said because he himself was thinking of opening a spa.
“His age caught him. You get to a point where you get tired of climbing ladders up and down, ‘said John Michels. “He actually wanted to start his own massage spa. This is what he talked about last year. ”
Paul Michels grew up in a large family in Detroit, where he was the seventh of nine children. His brother John was no. 8.
Although they were born 2 1/2 years apart, ‘he was basically my twin’, John Michels said. Both joined the Army after high school, with Paul joining the infantry.
A few years after leaving the Army, Paul followed his brother to the Atlanta area in 1995 to install telephones and security systems. He also met his wife, Bonnie, and they have been married for over 20 years.
“He was a good, hard-working man who would do what he could to help people,” John Michels said. “He would lend you money if you ever needed it. You never left his place hungry. ”
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The day before she was killed, Delaina Ashley Yaun stopped by Rita Barron’s boutique to say hello and show photos of her 8-month-old daughter.
“She said to me, ‘I’m happy. I want another baby, ‘said Barron, who got to know 33-year-old Yaun when he ate at the Waffle House where the new mother worked.
Yaun and her new husband returned to the mall where Gabby’s Boutique is located on Tuesday, but this time they are next to Youngs Asian Massage. They planned it as a day for Yaun to relax while a family member watched their baby daughter.
Barron and her husband, Alejandro Acosta, heard shots from inside the boutique and later noticed a bullet was through the wall. 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, unharmed but upset. His wife was killed. “As you can imagine, he was completely destroyed, without power, he does not want to talk to anyone,” Acosta said. He added that he had spoken to Yaun’s husband twice since the shooting.
Family members said Yaun and her husband were first customers at Youngs, who were eager to relax.
“They are innocent. They did nothing wrong, ”Yaun’s crying mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. “I just do not understand why he took my daughter.”