A trip to the spa that ended in death. These are some of the victims of the shootings in the Atlanta area

(CNN) – Delaina Yaun and her husband were at Youngs Asian Massage, a spa in Acworth, Georgia, on Tuesday when a gunman entered and opened fire.

“They just went to spend some time alone, husband and wife. Just time together,” Dana Toole, Yaun’s sister, told CNN. “Unfortunately, it went wrong. It went bad very quickly.”

Yaun was killed, one of nine victims in shootings at three different spas in the Atlanta area, one in Acworth and two in Atlanta. Of the eight people who lost their lives, six were Asian women.

Four people died at the Cherokee County spa, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta. Authorities identified them as Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44. One man, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, survived.

Four people also died at spas in Atlanta. On Friday, the Fulton County Medical Examiner identified the victims as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

Here’s what we know about the victims so far.

Xiaojie Tan

Xiaojie Tan, the owner of Youngs Asian Massage, was a caring and selfless person who made others feel like family, Greg Hynson, a friend of Tan, told CNN.

“Hey, we’re family,” he said they often said to each other. “I’ll take care of your back, you take care of mine.”

On his last birthday, Tan texted Hynson, “Hey, what are you doing?”

She invited him to the business, where flowers and a cake with his name were waiting for him, he said, setting an example of her thoughtfulness.

The two met through mutual friends over five years ago.

Tan was a diligent and hard-working businesswoman, Hynson said, and her employees “were always sweet and personable people,” she said. “Very similar to his personality.”

Hynson used to stop by his Cherokee County business to say hi, just as he did last weekend, he said. That was the last time he saw Tan, who was busy at the time.

“I’ll be back later,” he remembered telling her when he saw her.

“I didn’t get a chance to come back later,” he said.

Tan’s ex-husband, Michael Webb, told CNN that she was a hard-working woman who had always been determined to own her own business.

She became a nail technician while they lived in Florida, she said, working every day and saving her money. They later moved to Georgia where he ran a business in Marietta for 10 years before opening Youngs Asian Massage.

“For the last two years, she was telling me, ‘I’m going to be able to retire soon,'” Webb said.

“She worked really hard,” he said. “It saddens me that it was over in an instant while she was working hard, and she will never be able to enjoy that.”

When asked what she would say to her mother now if given the chance, Tan’s daughter, Jami Webb, said, “I would tell her that I love her.”

Delaina yaun

Yaun’s sister described her as a family oriented person. Recently married, she was the mother of two children, including an 8-month-old girl.

“His family came first. It was all his family,” Toole said. “He had such a wonderful, happy and optimistic personality.”

“She was a good person,” Toole said. “She didn’t deserve it. Nobody deserved it.”

Yaun’s husband left the Acworth spa safely, according to a GoFundMe page that said his family was heartbroken and that “there is nothing anyone can do to help with the pain.”

In an interview with Mundo Hispanico, Yaun’s husband, Mario González, said he was in a different room when the shooting began Tuesday, about an hour after the massages.

“They took the most valuable thing I have in my life,” he said, adding: “He left me alone with pain, the murderer who killed my wife.”

Another GoFundMe page called Yaun a “beautiful angel.”

“She has two beautiful babies that she is leaving behind,” he said. “We just don’t know how to do any of this alone.”

Hyun jung grant

Hyun Jung Grant was among those killed at Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta, his son, Randy Park, said on a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $ 2 million. Park described her as a “single mother who dedicated her entire life to supporting my brother and me.”

“She was one of my best friends and the biggest influence on who we are today,” he said. “Losing her has put a new lens in my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world.”

Park said he and his brother are the only members of his family in the United States. The rest of his family is in South Korea.

Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz

Elcias Hernández-Ortiz was shot at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth, the only survivor of Tuesday’s shootings.

Hernández-Ortiz was shot in the forehead and the bullet traveled to his lungs and stomach, his wife, Flora González Gómez, said on GoFundMe. He is now in the hospital’s intensive care unit, he said.

In an interview with CNN en Español on Thursday, González Gómez said she received a call from her husband, a mechanic, moments after the shooting.

“He called me and said, ‘They shot me, they shot me, please come,'” he said. “That was the only thing he said to me. It was terrifying to hear that.”

His daughter, Yoseline González, 9, watched as doctors put him into an ambulance after the shooting.

“I really don’t know what to do. I’m trying to calm down,” Yoseline told CNN affiliate WGCL, wiping away tears.

According to Yoseline, the doctors told her family that she was very lucky to have survived. “He’s a really good father,” she said. “I do not want she leaves”.

González Gómez called it a “miracle” that he is alive.

“And for that I am very thankful to God,” she said, “because I know he will get through this.”

Fear among the Asian American community

Four of the victims were ethnic Korean, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

“Our government is closely watching the situation, with a keen interest in the safety of our compatriots abroad,” South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong told a news conference. “We also express our deepest condolences to the citizens of the United States.”

Activist groups, community members and officials said the attacks increased fear among Asians in the US in the wake of growing hate incidents as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s hard to ignore the fact that a lot of the victims were Asian, all the victims in Atlanta were Asian, in fact, and that he targeted these Asian massage parlors,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance told CNN Wednesday Bottoms.

“Regardless of the motivation, given the concerns that the community already has in light of all the attacks that we have seen, particularly against Asian American women and the elderly, I think this is a reminder that we must do all that we possibly can. may protect the most vulnerable among us, “Georgia State Representative Sam Park told CNN.

Organizations Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Asian American Advocacy Fund, 9to5 and Korean American Coalition Metro Atlanta said they are raising resources and funds for those affected and the families of Asian victims.

Flowers lined the three Atlanta locations on Wednesday as the victims were remembered. Jessica Lang took a moment to place her hand on the Youngs door in Acworth after leaving flowers with her daughter.

Drawings and photographs of parents and children hinted at the grief of families as they mourned parents, siblings, spouses and children.

There could have been more casualties, says Atlanta mayor

The first shooting occurred shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday at Youngs Asian Massage and left four people dead. Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene and two died in a hospital.

About an hour later and 30 miles away, Atlanta police responded to what was described as a robbery at the Gold Massage Spa on Piedmont Road in Atlanta. Police said they found three people dead.

While there, police received another shooting call across the street at the Aroma Therapy Spa, where they found a person dead, Bryant said.

The authorities, seeking to contact the relatives, have not identified the other victims.

Police are holding a suspect, Robert Long, 21, on charges related to the three attacks. Long was arrested 150 miles south of the city, and Bottoms said he was heading to Florida “perhaps to carry out additional shootings.”

“It is very likely that there would have been more victims,” ​​Bottoms said at a news conference at Atlanta police headquarters.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Delaina Yaun’s first name in a caption. The story also misspelled Xiaojie Tan’s last name according to information provided by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. The story has also been updated to include the full and correct names of Yong Ae Yue, Hyun Jung Grant, and Soon Chung Park.

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