Atlanta spa shootings: Who are the victims?
- Published
Officials and local media in the US state of Georgia have identified the eight people who were killed on Tuesday night inside spas in the Atlanta area.
Here's what we know about the victims.
Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33
Ms Yaun and her husband had gone to Young's Asian Massage for a couples massage, according to an online fundraiser set up for the family's funeral costs.
Her husband, Mario Gonzalez, was in another room during the attack and hid from the gunman.
The couple had been married less than a year. They have two children - a teenage son and an 8-month-old baby girl.
"What am I going to do?" Mr Gonzalez told Spanish-language news site MundoHispanico. "That murderer only left me pain."
A friend of Ms Yaun's told WXIA-TV that she was a friendly person "who seemed to have a light around her that just drew you in".
Xiaojie Tan, 49
Xiaojie Tan owned two businesses, including Young's Asian Spa where the first shooting occurred, according to city business records, external.
She is also listed as the business owner for Wang's Feet and Body Massage in Kennesaw, Georgia.
According to NBC News, she was also a licensed massage therapist.
She was born in Nanning, on the China-Vietnam border, and met her husband Michael Webb when he travelled there for work in the early 2000s, her family told USA Today.
"She was full of smiles and laughter. She was just a pleasure to be around," said Mr Webb, who brought his wife to the US in 2006 and legally adopted her daughter Jami. The couple split up in 2012 but remained close.
When she died, Ms Tan was one day shy of her 50th birthday.
Daoyou Feng, 44
Little is known about Ms Feng, who only started working for Ms Tan at Young's Massage in the past few months, a customer told the New York Times.
However, no address is known for Ms Feng. Her surname appears to be Chinese, but information about her has yet to be confirmed by officials.
A friend of Ms Tan described Ms Feng as kind and quiet in an interview with the Washington Post.
Paul Andre Michels, 54
Kikiana Whidby told CBS News that Mr Michels was godfather to her son. "I'm mad, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy," she told the station.
She said that Mr Michels had been out of work for some time, and had been doing maintenance work for Young's Asian Spa when the shooting occurred.
He built his last shelf there on Tuesday, the day of the shooting, she said.
Mr Michels grew up in Detroit with nine siblings. He moved to Atlanta with his wife, Bonnie, 26 years ago.
One brother, John Michels, told the Daily Beast that Mr Michels had been considering getting in to the massage business himself and was looking at opening a business of his own.
He added that his brother had served in the military from 1985 to 1989, and was a gun owner, a Catholic and "staunch Republican".
Elcias R Hernandez-Ortiz, 30
An online fundraiser for Mr Hernandez-Ortiz, the only victim to survive the attacks, says that he is in intensive care after being shot in the forehead, lungs and stomach at Young's Asian Spa.
"Please pray for my family and the families that were affected by this shooting," his wife, Flor Gonzalez, wrote on the fundraising page.
Ms Gonzalez told USA Today her husband begged her for help over the phone as the shooting was unfolding.
He had moved to the US from Guatemala over a decade ago and worked as a mechanic, Ms Gonzelez told the New York Times. The couple has a nine-year-old daughter, Yoseline.
"There are so many people that depend on him," Ms Gonzalez said.
Hyun Jung Grant, 51
Ms Grant's son told the Daily Beast she worked at the Gold Spa, where she was killed.
Randy Park said he learned about her death from a witness to the attack.
Mr Park, 22, said that his mother worked hard as a single mother to two sons, and had been a schoolteacher in South Korea before coming to the US for "regular immigrant reasons".
Mr Park said he is trying to retrieve his mother's body for a funeral after relatives from South Korea were unable to come help.
"She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today," Mr Park wrote on a verified GoFundMe page.
"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."
Soon Chung Park, 74
Ms Park made food for the employees of Gold Spa, her family told the Washington Post.
Before moving to Atlanta, she spent most of her life in the New York metro area, they said.
The oldest of the eight victims in the spa shootings, her son-in-law, Scott Lee, told the Post "she was very healthy".
"Everybody said she was going to live past 100-years-old."
He told the paper that she loved to stay active and didn't work just to earn money.
Mr Lee said he grew close to his mother-in-law because they all lived under one roof when he first got married to her daughter. Ms Park had been planning to move back in with the couple this June.
Suncha Kim, 69
Ms Kim was a grandmother who came to the US in the 1980s, according to the Washington Post.
She was an employee at Gold Spa, though granddaughter Regina Song wrote on a fundraiser page that Ms Kim worked "two to three jobs" to provide for her family.
She described Ms Kim as "a fighter" and "a rock" for her two children and three grandchildren.
"She represented everything I wanted to be as a woman, without an ounce of hate or bitterness in her heart," Ms Song said. "She never forgot to call me once a week to say 'stay strong in life, when you're happy, I'm happy.'"
She added that all Ms Kim had wanted was "to grow old with my grandfather and watch her children and grandchildren live the life she never got to live".
Yong Ae Yue, 63
A South Korean native, Ms Yue came to the US in the 1970s with her husband, Mac Peterson, the New York Times reported.
Mr Peterson told the Times they met while he was with the army. They had since divorced but had two sons together.
He described his ex-wife as "a good mother'' who was "always there for her kids".
Ms Yue's sons told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper that she was laid off last year because of the pandemic. A licensed massage therapist, she had been happy to return to work at the Aromatherapy Spa.
A verified fundraiser page set up by her youngest son, Robert, described her as "an amazing woman who loved to introduce our family and friends to her home-cooked Korean food and Korean karaoke".
"Will miss joining mom on her weekly Sunday routine to the grocery store and traditional Korean dinner," he wrote.
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