Shot in Atlanta: A victim of spa attacks was a South Korean citizen, according to an official

The other three are believed to be of Korean-American descent, Kwangsuk Lee told the Republic of Korea’s deputy consulate general in Atlanta on CNN on Friday.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry decided not to disclose further information about the victims, including their names, “to protect the privacy of the victims and to respect the requests of family members,” Lee said. The South Korean consulate in Atlanta received information Friday about the four victims of Korean descent from Atlanta police, he said.

Some officials have called charges of hate crimes against the suspect, who according to authorities had traveled to perpetrate more attacks when he was arrested.

Shocking violence adds to the fear many Asians feel in the United States because anti-Asian hate crimes have doubled more than during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and the extremism of California State University, San Bernardino.

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called for an investigation into the case 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 counts of attempted murder, one counts of aggravated assault and five counts of use of a firearm while committing a felony. He has also been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the two spa shootings in Atlanta, police said there.

The suspect, arrested Tuesday night at a traffic stop 150 miles south of Atlanta, told police he believed he had a sex addiction and saw spas as “a temptation … that he wanted to eliminate.” , said Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
“Sex” is a category of hate crime under Georgian law. If the suspect was targeting women out of hatred for them or because of scapegoat for their own problems, it could be a hate crime.

Officials condemn rising anti-Asian hate crimes

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant has said it is still too early to know the reasons for the suspect and Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace has said the investigation is ongoing and will be filed. the corresponding charges.

But FBI Oversight Secretary Jim Clemente told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the level of planning seen in his actions shows the suspect was motivated by more than one “bad day.”

“His actions show that he addressed a particular type of person that particular day and not only did he go to one place, but he went to a second and a third place,” Clemente said.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta on Friday and condemned the shootings and the growing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans.
In statements against hate crimes, Biden is trying to restore moral clarity to the presidency
During Biden and Harris’ visit, community leaders spoke with the president and vice president for more than an hour about their concerns about crimes against Asians and other issues, the Georgia state representative said. , Bee Nguyen, CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

While in Atlanta, Biden and Harris did not explicitly state that they considered the shooting a hate crime. But they noted that regardless of the shooter’s motivation, the killings occur as hate crimes against Asian Americans increase.

“The conversation we’ve had today with leaders (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders), and we’re hearing across the country, is that hatred and violence are often hidden from view. It’s often in silence.” , said Biden. “This has been true throughout our history, but that must change because our silence is complicity.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she was not surprised by the attack that killed so many Asian women.

“We’ve been marching towards more and more violent hate crimes against AAPIs over the last year,” Duckworth said.

Members of the U.S. Atlanta Committee Against Asian Hate Crime are holding a memorial vigil at the scene of two of the massage shots in Atlanta.

Victims leave families behind: “She was one of my best friends”

The names of the eight people killed have been released.

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44, were shot dead by Youngs’ Asian massage in Cherokee County.

Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was also shot against Youngs Asian Massage but survived.

About 30 miles away and within an hour of the first shooting, four Asian women were killed in Atlanta, three at the Gold Massage Spa and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa on the street, authorities said.

The four victims in Atlanta were: Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Office.

Of those four, three died from gunshot wounds to the head and one died from gunshot wounds to the chest, the medical office said.

A trip to the spa that ended in death.  These are some of the victims of the shootings in the Atlanta area
Grant was a “single mother who dedicated her entire life to providing for my brother and me,” her son Randy Park wrote on a GoFundMe page.

“She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today,” Park wrote.

The GoFundMe page, created by Grant’s two sons, had raised more than $ 2 million from more than 50,000 donors since Saturday morning. GoFundMe told CNN that the page is verified; Park did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

On the page it is said that the money given will pay for food, rent and other monthly bills. He says the siblings are now only in the United States, with all other South Korean relatives.

“Losing it has put me on a new lens about how much hatred exists in our world,” Park wrote.

Yaun’s husband, Mario Gonzalez, told the Mundo Hispanico newspaper that he and his wife were at the spa for massages and that he was in a separate room when the shooting began.

“About an hour into … I heard the shots. I didn’t see anything, I just started thinking it was in the room where my wife was,” he told the newspaper.

“(The shooter) took away the most valuable thing I had in my life,” Gonzalez said. “It just left me in pain.”

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 CNN’s Holly contributed to this report.

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