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What we know about the victims of the Atlanta shootings

admin March 18, 2021
A candlelight vigil was held for the victims of the Atlanta shootings in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 17. | Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Eight people — including six Asian women — were killed in the shooting on Tuesday.

As Asian communities across the country grapple with the rise in anti-Asian violence, eight people — including six Asian women — were fatally shot by a single gunman at three different spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday.

In a span of 45 minutes, 21-year-old suspect Robert Aaron Long killed multiple people at Young’s Asian Massage in a suburb north of Atlanta, and at two more businesses — Aromatherapy Spa and Gold Spa — just across the street from each other in the city.

While information about the victims is limited, the names of those killed at Young’s Asian Massage were 49-year-old Xiaojie Tan, 33-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, 44-year-old Daoyou Feng, and 54-year-old Paul Andre Michels; a fifth person, 30-year-old Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry officials say the four victims at Aromatherapy and Gold spas were of Korean descent, including Julia Park and Hyun-jeong Park Grant, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Korea Times Atlanta; the other two have yet to be named.

Here’s what we know about them so far:

Xiaojie “Emily” Tan

Tan, 49, was the mother of a recent graduate from the University of Georgia. She was a licensed massage therapist and the owner of Young’s Asian Massage, along with other businesses in the area, including another spa and a tanning salon, according to state records.

She was “the sweetest, most kind-hearted, giving, never-met-a-stranger person,” a friend told Atlanta’s WSB-TV.

Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez

Yaun, 33, was a mother of two — 13-year-old Mayson and 8-month-old Mia. She had worked all day on Tuesday at the Waffle House a few shops down from Tan’s spa business. She had been looking forward to having a relaxing night out with her husband, Mario Gonzalez, whom she married only last year, and the couple had reportedly never been to Young’s Asian Massage before. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, family members say that Gonzalez, who survived the shooting, is “taking [the situation] hard.” Yaun’s friends and family have set up a GoFundMe to address her funeral costs.

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Daoyou Feng

According to The Cut, Feng, 44, was an employee at Young’s Asian Massage.

Paul Andre Michels

Michels, 54, was a handyman at Young’s Asian Massage and the owner of an electric company. He was only recently hired for the role and excited to take it on after looking for more work during the pandemic, according to a friend who spoke with CBS46.

An army veteran originally from Detroit, Michels is one of nine siblings and is survived by his wife of more than two decades. In an interview with the Guardian, his brother John Michels emphasized his kindness. “He was just a regular guy, very good-hearted, very soft-natured,” he said, while noting that Michels had expressed an interest in getting involved in the massage business.

Julie Park

Park, a woman of Korean descent in her 70s, was an employee at Gold Spa, according to the Korea Times Atlanta.

Hyun-jeong Park Grant

Park Grant, a woman of Korean descent in her 50s, was also an employee at Gold Spa.

Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz

Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was the only survivor of the victims who were shot on Tuesday, and he remains hospitalized for multiple gunshot wounds in his “forehead, throat, lungs and stomach,” according to the Washington Post. He was shot while standing outside in the shopping center where Young’s Asian Massage is located.

An auto repair shop owner who immigrated from Guatemala 10 years ago, Hernandez-Ortiz is married and has a 9-year-old daughter.

“He came from nothing and has come a long way; that is why I have faith he will survive this,” his wife Flor Gonzalez told the Washington Post. Gonzalez has also set up a GoFundMe to help with the costs of Hernandez-Ortiz’s medical care.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information about the victims becomes available.


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