The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office on Friday released the names of four women killed in shootings at two Atlanta spas.
They were identified as Soon C. Park, 74; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong A. Yue, 63.
Three of the women died from gunshot wounds to the head and one from a bullet to the chest, the coroner’s office said. All four deaths were considered homicides.
The victims were among eight people who died when an armed man opened fire on Tuesday at two spas in Atlanta and one north of the city in Cherokee County.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office identified these victims as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44. One man, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, was injured.
Six of the people killed were of Asian descent, officials said. The deaths occurred on the same day that the Stop AAPI Hate news forum released a report saying that reports of anti-Asian hate incidents have increased significantly. The report said that a disproportionate number of incidents involved women.
On a tweet On Tuesday, the organization said the shootings were an “indescribable tragedy”.
A 21-year-old white man from Woodstock was arrested shortly after the shooting. He was charged with eight counts of murder and one of aggravating assault.
Authorities said the suspect’s comments indicated that he might have had a sexual addiction and that he saw the spas as a temptation that he needed to eliminate.
The investigators said, however, that they are not ruling out the possibility of a racial motive.
It was not clear whether the companies had ties to sex work. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said this week that the spas were “businesses operating legally that were not on our radar” and that “we are not about to blame the victims, to embarrass the victims here”.
“A crime against any community is a crime against all of us,” she said.
