President Joe Biden has marked the one-year anniversary of the shootings that happened at an Atlanta spa, and another one in Georgia's Cherokee County, with a statement calling it an "attack" on the Asian community and the businesses they run.
On March 16, 2021, the victims, 49-year-old Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 44-year-old Daoyou Feng, 33-year-old Delaine Ashley Yaun and 54-year-old Paul Andre Michels were shot and killed by 22-year-old Robert Aaron Long at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County in the Atlanta area. A fifth person was seriously injured there as well, according to multiple reports.
Authorities say Long then drove around 30 miles into the city of Atlanta where he killed 74-year-old Soon Chung "Julie" Park, 51-year-old Hyun Jung Grant and 69-year-old Suncha Kim, WXIA reported.
63-year-old licensed massage therapist Yong Ay Yue was also killed in that shooting while working at the spa, after just returning from being laid off when the pandemic hit, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Biden said in a statementthat the shootings are "a stark reminder that anti-Asian violence and discrimination have deep roots in our nation."
"In the aftermath of these senseless deaths, the vice president and I traveled to Atlanta to meet with leaders of the Asian American community," Biden said.
The president continued by saying that Asian American women experience "the compounded harms of being targeted on account of their race as well as their gender."
