Watch “AFRAID: Fear in Communities of Color” at 9:00 pm ET on Monday, March 22 – a CNN feature featured by Amara Walker, Ana Cabrera, Victor Blackwell and Anderson Cooper.
In Atlanta, several Korean church congregations held a service in Korean outside the Gold Spa in honor of the victims, with some participants holding placards with the words “Stop Asian hatred”.
Pastor Byeong Cheol Han, of the Central Presbyterian Church in Korea, called the murders a “wake-up call” for many Asian Americans. He emphasized that this is a time for us to be more involved in social justice on behalf of all black communities in the United States.
“It is a time to wake up for Asian Americans to stand their ground. Stand up and raise our voice. And join the social justice movement,” said Han. “Many Asian Americans tend to avoid these kinds of things, it is not our business, we are just focusing on our survival, but this is an awakening for us.”
The suspect arrested in the case told police he was addicted to sex and wanted to eliminate the temptation. But Han said it was clearly a hate crime. The suspect’s alleged sex addiction “was a terrible excuse. He targeted the very vulnerable. Those who cannot resist.”
“It is not just a young man’s embezzlement or an isolated incident. This is clearly a racially motivated crime,” added Han
Han said members of his congregation had expressed complicated feelings since the killings, mostly fear and anger.
Communities cry out for change
“The rhetoric and behavior of our national leaders encouraged and ignited anti-Asian sentiment,” said Low, noting that the United States has policies in place for over 100 years that target and discriminate against Asian Americans, including the Exclusion Act. 1882 Chinese and Executive Order 9066, which ordered Americans of Japanese descent to internment camps in the 1940s.
People who attended a rally in Columbus Park in New York City on Sunday told CNN they showed up because they are tired of dealing with discrimination and hope that the Atlanta tragedy will bring about change.
When asked about the reason for her participation, Angela Eunsung Kim said: “Because I am Asian and a woman, and if I don’t defend myself, no one else will. That is why I am here.”
“I want people to finally hear us, for us, not just when we’re up,” she added. “I want to see changes in the people around me, my friends, my, you know, work, everything, from our neighbors, to the legislators. That’s the kind of change I want to see.”
Tiffany Wetherell said it was time for her community to be heard after the killings.
“I want to go out today to support the cause. I want to raise awareness, ”she said. “I want everyone to know that we are not their Asian symbol. We are not their Asian friends. We are everywhere. And it is our turn to be heard.”
The New York Police Department reported 28 arrests for hate crimes against Asians in 2020, against three in 2019 and two in 2018. The Los Angeles Police Department also reported an increase: 15 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2020, against seven in 2019 and 11 in 2018.
Lives lost in the shooting
He told police he believed he had an addiction to sex and that he saw the spas as “a temptation … that he wanted to eliminate,” according to Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff. Long said the attacks were not racially motivated, Baker said.
The first shootout took place at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth shortly before 5 pm on March 16, officials said.
Four people died in the first shootout: Xiaojie Tan, from Kennesaw, 49; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, from Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, from Atlanta; and Daoyou Feng, 44. Elworths R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, from Acworth, was also shot, but survived.
An hour after the first shooting, four more Asian women were killed in two spas on Piedmont Road in Atlanta; three at the Gold Massage Spa and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, officials said. These victims were identified as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
One of the four victims in Atlanta was a South Korean citizen and a permanent resident of the United States, according to Kwangsuk Lee, South Korea’s deputy general consulate in Atlanta. The other three are considered Korean ethnic Americans, Lee told CNN on Friday.
The families of the victims who spoke said they wanted justice for the meaningless deaths of their loved ones.
“It was a massacre. We have a justice system and it will have to be held accountable,” Tan’s ex-husband Michael Webb told CNN on Sunday.
He said Tan worked seven days a week to save for retirement. “I am sad to be finished in an instant while she was working hard,” Webb told CNN.
“She kept telling me: I’m going to be able to retire soon,” said Webb. “She worked to die,” said Webb.
Webb told CNN that Tan protected his employees, sometimes expelling certain men from the facility.
“She wanted to know where her employees were … who the customers were, she used to tell me many times that she kicked out customers because they arrived and thought they could have sex,” explained Webb.
Suspect denounced by church
After his arrest on Interstate 75 in southern Georgia, Long was detained without bail in Cherokee County, where he faces four counts of murder with malice, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of use. of firearms when committing a crime.
He was charged with four counts of murder in connection with the two shootings at a spa in Atlanta, according to Atlanta police.
The investigation of the deaths is ongoing and the appropriate charges will be brought, Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said last week.
Earlier in the week, the church issued a longer statement saying that they were “absolutely devastated by this meaningless loss of life and indifference to human beings created in the image of God”.
“We regret the victims and their families and we continue to pray for everyone affected by this heinous crime, while dealing with unimaginable pain and sadness,” they added, saying they were “absolutely disturbed” to discover the suspect in the death was a member of his family. church.
“These unthinkable and egregious murders directly contradict their own confession of faith in Jesus and the gospel,” the statement said.
CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Dakin Andone, Jason Carroll, Steve Machalek, Christina Maxouris, Yon Pomrenze, Anna Sturla and Holly Yan contributed to this report.