Sun Cha Kim was “a fighter”.
After immigrating to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, to support her family, the 69-year-old worked “two to three jobs”, although she spoke “very little English”. But the mother of two never complained and was seen as a “stone” by the three grandchildren.
“Stay strong in life … when you’re happy, I’m happy,” she told her grandchildren during weekly phone calls, according to a proven fundraiser from GoFundMe.
Kim is one of eight people shot to death by Robert Aaron Long, 21, during a riot on Tuesday at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area, an attack that fueled fears of anti-Asian violence. Authorities say Long, who faces several charges, admitted to the murders, but insisted that his actions were motivated by issues of sexual addiction, not race.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner on Friday released the names of four victims shot at the Gold Massage Spa and Aroma Therapy Spa in Atlanta, including Kim, 74-year-old Soon C. Park, 51-year-old Hyun J. Grant and 63-Yong A. Yue, one year old. The coroner concluded that Park, Grant and Yue suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, while Kim died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
“My grandmother was an angel, having taken her away in such a horrible way is unbearable to think about,” Kim’s granddaughter said in a statement associated with GoFundMe Friday night. “As an immigrant, all my grandmother ever wanted in life was to grow old with my grandfather and see her children and grandchildren live the life she never had.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday released the names of the other four victims, who were shot at Young’s Asian Massage, Long’s first target. According to CCTV, he spent an hour inside Young’s in Acworth before the shooting. These victims were identified as Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, a mother of two, 33, who was on an evening date with her husband; Paul Andre Michels, a 54-year-old businessman who has been married for more than two decades; and Xiaojie Tan, a 49-year-old man who appeared to own at least two massage parlors in Atlanta.
Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, a Hispanic man from Acworth, was shot at Young’s and is currently in hospital for his injuries.
About an hour later, three people were found dead at the Gold Massage Spa in Atlanta, including Grant. Another person was shot dead at the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street. Grant’s son Randy Park, 23, told The Daily Beast on Thursday that “she was a single mother of two who has devoted her entire life to raising them.”
According Los Angeles Times, Kim moved to Atlanta more than 15 years ago and lived in Gold Spa at the time of the shooting, where he helped feed and wash employees’ clothes.
“She was pure-hearted and was the most selfless woman I have ever met,” added Kim’s granddaughter at GoFundMe. “She represented everything I wanted to be as a woman, without an ounce of hatred or bitterness in her heart. People who were close to me knew that my grandmother was my rock. “
“To have taken her away as a perfectly healthy elderly woman for such a heinous crime broke my heart. I will never see her again, but I am left with only happy memories of her and the beautiful life she lived ”, added the statement.
Although the police did not release details about the victims or many details about Long’s alleged shooting, family and friends provided details about the hardworking people who lost their lives.
Soon Park’s son-in-law Scott Lee said in an interview with New York Times that the 74-year-old lady worked at Gold Spa and “got along very well with her family”. Lee added that he had previously lived in New York, where many of his relatives still live, before moving to Atlanta.
In a statement provided to The Daily Beast, Yong Yue’s two sons described their devastation over the loss of their “beloved mother” and said “words cannot adequately describe our pain”.
“To all those who sought to provide support and words of encouragement, thank you. Right now, as the case has attracted so much attention, we are asking … the media and the public to respect our family’s privacy while we suffer and make preparations for our mother’s funeral, “note issued by lawyer BJay Pak, said a former US Attorney General for the Northern Georgia District.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, her children described her mother, a 63-year-old licensed massage therapist, as a worker. She was excited to go back to work after being discharged last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, they said.
Robert Peterson, 38, told the newspaper that his mother was the kind of caring person who sent flowers, food or gifts to someone with the money she had left over. She loved movies, reading and soap operas.
“My mom didn’t do anything wrong,” added Peterson. “And she deserves the recognition that she is human, she is a person from the community like everyone else. None of these people deserved what happened to them. “
Yue’s grandson, Alijah Peterson, 24, also praised his grandmother in a tribute on Facebook on Wednesday, calling her “someone who saw my mistakes … and always warns me, it takes a true friend” .
“You made me such a better person, things that I thought were not wrong, you corrected in my best interest,” Peterson wrote next to a photo of the pair. “I love you forever and you didn’t deserve it. Take care and protect me grandma. “