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These are the 8 victims of the Atlanta-area spa shootings, including a 49-year-old massage therapist and a young mom on a date night

Mar 19, 2021, 23:21 IST
Insider
Law enforcement officials confer outside a massage parlor following a shooting on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta.Associated Press/Brynn Anderson
  • A string of shootings at Atlanta-area spas left eight people dead Tuesday night.
  • Six of the victims were Asian women. Some of their friends and family have paid tribute.
  • By Friday, Georgia officials had identified and named all of the victims.
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Eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday night, six of whom were Asian women.

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department identified four of the victims on Tuesday: Xiaojie Tan, 49; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; and Daoyou Feng, 44.

All four were killed at the first shooting location, Young's Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta, officials said.

A fifth person, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was injured in the shooting and is in stable condition, according to WRCB TV.

On Friday morning, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office named the remaining four victims killed at the neighboring businesses Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta.

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The victims were identified as Soon C. Park, 74, Hyun Jung Grant, 51, Suncha Kim, 69, and Yong A. Yue, 63.

The police arrested a 21-year-old white man, Robert Aaron Long, over the deadly shootings.

Details are still emerging about the eight people who were killed on Tuesday night. Here is what we know about the victims so far.

Xiaojie Tan was a licensed massage therapist and owned one of the spas that was attacked.

Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw, Georgia, was a licensed massage therapist, according to NBC News. She also owned Young's Asian Massage, where the first shooting occurred, as well as another massage parlor in the Atlanta area, USA Today reported.

Tan, who also went by her American name, Emily, would have turned 50 one day after the shooting, and was planning to celebrate the occasion with her 29-year-old daughter, Jami Webb, according to USA Today. Webb told the outlet her mother was hardworking and did everything for her family.

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"She provided everything. She worked every day, 12 hours a day, so that me and our family would have a better life," Webb said.

Jami Webb said she and her father, Michael Webb, spent Tan's birthday planing her funeral.

Michael Webb told USA Today that he met Tan while traveling in China in the early 2000s, and ended up legally adopting her daughter Jami after they wed in 2004.

"She was full of smiles and laughter. She was just a pleasure to be around," he said of Tan.

Tan, who worked as a nail tech and opened a nail salon before opening her massage spa, eventually became a naturalized US citizen, and registered to vote in 2012.

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Webb and Tan divorced in 2012, but remained close, USA Today reported.

"She'd always say, 'we family,'" Michael Webb told USA Today. "Even when we got divorced, she'd say that: 'We family.' Because that's how she was."

Friends and family told USA Today Tan was curious and sweet, and had an ever-expanding list of the places she wanted to travel when she retired.

"She was full of smiles and laughter. She was just a pleasure to be around," Tan's ex-husband said.

Delaina Ashley Yaun was a young mother on a date night with her husband, who survived the shooting.

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth, Georgia, was killed while on a date night with her new husband, The Washington Post reported.

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She and her husband, Mario, were at Young's Asian Massage for a couple's massage when the shooting broke out, according to a GoFundMe page set up for her family. Mario was said to be in a separate room in the parlor and survived the shooting.

"It was just all about family," Dana Toole, Yuan's half-sister, told The New York Times. "Whatever we'd do, we'd do it together. It doesn't seem real. I expect to see her walking through the door any minute. It just hasn't quite sunk in yet."

Yaun is survived by two children: a 14-year-old son, Mason, and Mia, her 9-month-old daughter, according to 11 Alive.

Yaun was a popular Waffle House server who had worked for the chain since 2013, The Washington Post reported.

Relatives told the paper she'd never been to the massage parlor before Tuesday.

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Paul Andre Michels was a business owner and veteran who had been married more than 20 years.

Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta owned an electric company and was married for more than two decades, family members told The Daily Beast. They also said Michels was an Army veteran, a gun owner, a "staunch Republican," and a "baptized Roman Catholic."

His brother also told The Daily Beast that Michels was interested in getting into the massage business, including owning establishments.

Hyun Jung Grant was a single parent who "dedicated her whole life" to her sons

Hyun Jung Grant's son, 23-year-old Randy Park, described his mother in interviews with The Daily Beast and Korean-language outlet Atlanta K after Tuesday night's shooting.

Park said that his 51-year-old mother was an employee at Gold Spa, where the gunman killed her and two others.

In a tribute to her on GoFundMe, Park said his mother was "one of my best friends," and that she had "dedicated her whole life to providing for my brother and I."

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Now Park is raising money to cover living expenses for him and his brother, as well as legal fees and a funeral for his mother.

By Friday morning, the GoFundMe had raised more than $705,000.

"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," he wrote on the GoFundMe. "Frankly, I have no time to grieve for long. I will need to figure out the living situation for my brother and I for the next few months, possibly year."

In an update, he thanked donors for their support.

"My mother can rest say knowing I have the support of the world with me," he wrote.

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Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz was injured in the shooting but survived

Hernandez-Ortiz was reportedly making his way to a money-exchange business next to the massage parlor when the shooting began. According to The Washington Post, he called his wife, Flor Gonzalez, moments after being shot, and said: "I have been shot! Please come! I need you!"

This is a developing story.

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com or kmclaughlin@insider.com.

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