A fundraiser set up by a child of one of the victims who died in the deadly Atlanta spa shootings has raised more than $2 million.
Hyun Jung Grant, 51, a single mother of two young men, was one of the eight people shot and killed in three separate shootings Tuesday, all of which occurred in Atlanta-area parlors. A GoFundMe page set up by her oldest surviving son, Randy Park, has raised over $2.4 million from more than 62,000 donors.
EIGHT DEAD IN SHOOTINGS AT THREE ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLORS
Park and his brother are alone because the rest of their relatives reside in South Korea, he said in the description of the fundraiser, adding that he is unsure of what he and his brother will do without “one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today.”
Any donation will be used for “basic living necessities for my brother and I such as food, bills, and other expenses,” he added.
Following a tidal wave of donations, he posted an update: “Thank you everyone and please share whatever care and kindness you have shown here to anyone you know that feels scared or unsure about the world we live in. I can’t help but feel selfish for all the attention this has garnered. Thank you everyone so much. This doesn’t represent even a fragment of how I feel. My mother can rest easy knowing I have the support of the world with me.”
Robert Aaron Long, 21, was charged with eight counts of murder Wednesday.
He allegedly shot and killed at least four people, and injured one, when he opened fire at the Young’s Asian Massage Parlor around 5 p.m. Tuesday. About an hour later, police were dispatched to the Gold Spa and Aroma Therapy Spa, where four more dead victims were found. The second and third spas are across the street from one another just south of Interstate 85. Six of the victims were of Asian origin, and seven of the victims were women.
Police released the names of the four people who were killed at Young’s Asian Massage Parlor: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44. Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was identified by police as the person injured during the shooting. The four victims from the other two spas are Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
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Six of the eight victims were Asian, leading many to suspect a hate crime, especially as there has been an increase in hate crimes against the Asian American community since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the alleged shooter claimed that race was not a motivating factor.
Long, in his interrogation with police, claimed that his attack was not racially motivated, law enforcement announced in a Wednesday briefing, rather that it had to do with a sex addiction.
A former roommate, Tyler Bayless, said Long spent several months seeking treatment for what he described as a sex addiction.
On a nearly monthly occurrence, Long would admit to his roommates that he had relapsed by visiting a massage parlor for sex, Bayless added, according to the New York Times.
