The Takeaways:
- Commemorative events will be held this weekend in Atlanta, Rosemead near Los Angeles, and San Francisco to remember the eight people killed four years ago in the Atlanta spa shootings.
- Victoria Huynh, founder of Georgia AAPI Hub, stressed the importance of unity and combating injustice to ensure hate has no place in society.
- Events will take place in Atlanta, Rosemead near Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Details:
Members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus and community leaders in Atlanta paused Thursday to remember the eight people killed in the spa shooting four years ago.
This Sunday marks the anniversary of that tragic day when a gunman entered three Atlanta area massage parlors, killing eight people, six of them Asian.
Those killed were Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Xiaojie Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, Hyun Jung Grant, 51, Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
This weekend, observances will be held in Atlanta, Rosemead near Los Angeles and San Francisco.
On Thursday, concerned community members gathered at the Georgia State Capitol and vowed to never forget.
“As we approach the fourth commemoration of March 16, we do so in a political climate that has proven to be the fertile ground for continued hateful rhetoric against our communities of color,” Victoria Huynh, the founder of Georgia AAPI Hub, said to WABE. “We must not forget. We must continue to call on our communities to stand together to fight against injustice and to ensure that hate has no place in Georgia and in our country.”
Another remembrance will take place Sunday at the Norcross Community Center.
In San Francisco, people will gather at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco Chinatown on Sunday at 2 p.m. and in Rosemead near Los Angeles, a commemoration will take place beginning at 10:30 at the Rosemead Community Recreation Center at 3936 N. Muscatel Avenue.
The killings happened in two Atlanta area counties at three spas-Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Gold Spa in Atlanta, and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta.
The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has already been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of four people in Cherokee County.
He now faces the death penalty in a separate trial in Fulton County where he also faces enhanced hate crime charges.
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