Fundraising campaign for Atlanta shooting victim raises more than $2m

Six Asian American women killed in shooting spree at Atlanta-area spas

More than 60,000 donors have raised more than $2 million within 24 hours for a GoFundMe campaign supporting the two sons of one of the victims of an Atlanta-area shooting spree.

Hyun Jung Grant was among nine victims from a series of shootings at three Atlanta-area spas on 16 March. Eight people were killed, including six Asian American women.

Her son Randy Park said she was “a single mother who dedicated her whole life to providing for my brother and I.”

The fundraising platform has verified the campaign.

“She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today,” he wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world. As much as I want to grieve and process the reality that she is gone, I have a younger brother to take care of and matters to resolve as a result of this tragedy.”

He said the rest of their family, apart from his brother, live in South Korea. He said that he established the campaign for food, bills, housing and other expenses while he plans his mother’s funeral and cares for surrounding legal complications.

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“I will live the rest of my days grateful for what has essentially given my family a second chance,” he wrote in an update following a flood of support to the campaign.

Ms Grant was among four people identified by Fulton County authorities on 19 March. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office released the names of three other women killed in Atlanta: Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim and Yong Ae Yue.

Four people were killed at a spa roughly 30 miles outside Atlanta: Daoyou Feng, Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Yaun and Paul Andre Michels.

One man, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, survived the shooting.

A GoFundMe for Ms Kim’s family has raised more than $10,000. She is survived by a son, daughter and three grandchildren, according to the family

“Outside of our immediate family, everyone that met my grandmother loved her dearly,” the campaign says. “She was pure hearted and the most selfless woman I knew.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation from Atlanta on Friday, condemning a tide of violence and abuse towards Asian Americans following the nation’s legacy of anti-Asian racism and discrimination.

Their visit followed charges against Robert Aaron Long, who is white, on multiple counts of murder and one count of assault.

Police in Georgia have not described the killings as a hate crime despite growing appeals from lawmakers and Asian Americans witnessing violence and systemic racism in their communities for years.

According to investigators, Mr Long targeted the spas in an attempt to purge his “sexual addiction” – a case that has enmeshed violent misogyny with racist tropes of sexualising Asian women and Mr Long’s sexually repressiveevangelical background.

“Whatever the killer’s motive, these facts are clear,” Ms Harris said. “Racism is real in America, and it has always been. Xenophobia is real in America and always has been. Sexism, too.”

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives held a hearing on anti-Asian violence in the US on 18 March, as communities across the US hold vigils and demand justice for the attacks in Atlanta and elsewhere.

Asian Americans have reported at least 500 attacks within the first two months of 2021, according to Stop AAPI Hate.

The group said it received at least 3,795 complaints since it began tracking abuse against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since last year.

Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, told members of Congress that the data shows that none are isolated incidents, but happening in every state in the US.