ATLANTA — Investigators said Thursday they aren’t ready to release the names of the four women killed at two Atlanta spas during the deadly shooting spree that rattled two metro communities.
“We need to make sure we have a true verification of their identities and that we make a proper next of kin notification,” Atlanta deputy police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said during a news conference.
The four were among eight people killed Tuesday when 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long opened fire at three spas in Cherokee and Fulton counties, according to police. While the names of the four killed in Atlanta weren’t officially released, their lives were grieved anyway, along with the four killed at an Acworth-area spa.
They included a wife, a business owner, an Army veteran, and at least two mothers. Of those killed, investigators have said six were Asian women.
Eight months before the shooting, Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, welcomed her second child, her family said. Caring for the girl, of course, consumed Yaun and her husband’s lives when they weren’t working.
Yaun worked full time at Waffle House and also supervised a roofing crew, but she was off Tuesday night, and so was her husband. They went to Young’s Asian Massage Parlor near Acworth for a massage.
“This is their first evening out,” said Yaun’s grandfather, James Yaun Sr., standing in his doorway, shaking his head slowly. “The grandmother was keeping the baby so they could go out and have a good time.”
Then a gunman appeared, opening fire inside the business, killing Yaun and three others. Her husband survived.
“You never know in this crazy world these days,” James Yaun said.
The spa’s owner, Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, was also killed. Her friends told WBS-TV she was a mother of a recent graduate of the University of Georgia. She would have turned 50 years old Thursday, two days after her death.
Greg Hynson, Tan’s friend of six years, told the news station he couldn’t believe she was gone. Hynson went to the spa to get massages and said he knew Tan’s employees.
“They were friends, they loved everybody,” Hynson said. “It was just the nicest group of people. I can’t put any reasoning behind why somebody would want to do something so horrific to such nice people.”
Hynson was among those who rushed to the business after hearing about the shooting.
“My heart was in my throat the second I heard about it,” Hynson said. “And once I got here, the whole situation was just so surreal. It still doesn’t seem real.”
Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz was also shot, but he survived and remained in the hospital Thursday. His wife detailed Ortiz’s injuries on a GoFundMe page.
“He was shot in the forehead down to his lungs and into his stomach,” Flora Gonzalez Gomez wrote. “He will be needing facial surgery.”
“Please pray for my family and the families that were affected by this shooting,” she also wrote.
Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta, was the only man killed during the shooting spree.
Michels’ younger brother, John Michels, 52, told USA Today he believes his brother was “just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He said they grew up with a total of nine siblings in Detroit and both served in the U.S. Army at the same time. Paul Michels had served as an infantryman in the late 1980s, his brother said.
“I’m the closest in age, so we were basically like twins,” John said. “We did everything together growing up.”
The Fulton County medical examiner’s office said investigators have positively identified three of the women killed at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa on Piedmont Road, but are waiting to identify the fourth before releasing the victims’ names. Police said they are working with the Korean Consulate during the process.
“We had four Asian females that were killed, and so we are looking at everything to make sure that we discover and determine what the motive of our homicides (was),” Hampton said.
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