A Georgia delivery driver has told of seeing his masseuse shot in the head and killed by the Atlanta spa gunman.
Marcus Lyon, 31, was a first-time visitor at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, a northwest suburb of Atlanta.
The spa was the first of three that Robert Aaron Long, 21, targeted on Tuesday in what he said was retaliation for his sex addiction. Eight people, six of them Asian women, died – including Lyon’s masseuse.
Lyon went to the spa for treatment for his bad back.
Marcus Lyon, a 31-year-old delivery driver, was at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth Tuesday
The salon owner, Xiaojie Tan, 49, was among four people to die at her spa in the shooting
Delaina Yaun, 33, who was at the spa for a massage, died in Tuesday night’s rampage
Xiaojie Tan, the owner of the spa, died in the shooting – on the day before her 50th birthday
About two minutes into his massage appointment on Tuesday, he heard the first gunshots.
‘We both stood up and looked around and heard that other gunshot,’ Lyon told CNN’s Briana Keilar.
‘She was by the door. That’s when I jumped behind the bed.
‘Once she opened up that door, I heard the third gunshot, and she actually dropped. I’m pretty sure she got shot in her head. I wasn’t even longer than two feet away from her. I see blood coming out of her head.
‘I constantly heard more gunshots after that, and from there, you know, I heard a ringing bell on the door.
‘I’m guessing the suspect ran out.’
Ashley Zhang takes a moment before laying flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Young’s
Ashley Zhang and Lily Yang lay flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Young’s Asian Massage
Lyon told Keilar he had a handgun in his car, but by the time he ran outside it was too late.
Three women – Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, who was at the spa for a massage; Daoyou Feng, a 44-year-old massage therapist; and the spa owner, Xiaojie Tan, 49 – died at the spa, along with one man, Paul Andre Michels, 54, who had been doing maintenance work at the site.
Lyon credited the unidentified masseuse with helping him survive the shooting.
‘I felt like she kind of saved my life,’ he said.
Four more people, all Asian women – Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63 – were later killed at two salons across the street from each other in Buckhead.
Lyon said that he considers himself ‘lucky’ that he made it out alive from the massacre.
‘I felt like my mom was watching over me,’ he told 11Alive.
‘She died of stage four colon cancer two years ago so I felt like she was watching over me or something.
‘It was crazy. I really couldn’t believe it.’
Lyon spoke as the husband of one of the victims told how he had initially believed the spa attack was a robbery, with the gunman firing blanks.
Gwangho Lee, 38, said when he arrived at the Gold Spa in Atlanta last Tuesday after getting a text message about the shooting, he found his wife, 74-year-old Soon Chung Park, bleeding from her mouth and unresponsive.
Lee, who was told by Park’s co-worker that she had fainted, attempted CPR but could not revive her.
He claimed that a police officer who was on the scene stood by and did nothing to help.
Gwangho Lee, 38 (right), the husband of Atlanta spa shooting victim Soon Chung Park, 74 (left), said he was initially told the attack was a robbery and the intruder was shooting blanks
When Lee entered the Gold Spa in Atlanta last Tuesday, he found his wife lying unresponsive in the hallway with blood around her mouth
Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been accused of shooting and killing eight people, including six Asian women, at three Atlanta-area massage parlors
Long, the son of a youth minister who was said to be a customer at two out of the three targeted spas, told police that the attacks were not racially motivated, but had to do with his sex addiction, and his purported desire to eliminate the sources of his temptation.
Park, a native of South Korea, worked as a day manager and cook at the Gold Spa.
She was one of three women who were killed inside the business.
Park’s son-in-law Scott Lee told the New York Times and the Washington Post that she had spent much of her life in New York and New Jersey, before moving to Georgia and starting a new life in the Gwinnett County suburb of Duluth with her husband.
Lee told The Daily Beast that he accepted Park’s marriage proposal after the two met in 2017.
Lee, a Lyft driver, told the Daily Beast he was already on the way to Gold Spa on Tuesday to pick up his wife’s co-worker when the woman texted him about an apparent robbery, and urged him to ‘send the police’ and ‘do it faster.’
GoFundMe campaign for sons of Atlanta spa shooting victim raises more than $2.77M in donations
An online fundraiser for the two sons of one of the eight people who were shot dead during last week’s rampage targeting Atlanta-area massage parlors has drawn more than $2.77million.
Randy Park, 22, the son of Hyun Jung Grant, 51, launched the GoFundMe page on Friday, three days after police said Robert Aaron Long, 21, went on a shooting spree and killed seven women and a man at a trio of day spas.
Park wrote in the campaign’s description that he was seeking donations, with an initial goal of $20,000, for ‘basic living necessities’ such as food, bills, and other expenses for him and his younger brother, who are now the only two members of his family living in the US.
A GoFundMe campaign that was launched on Friday by Randy Park, the son of shooting victim Hyun Jung Grant, has drawn more than $2,770,000 million in donations
‘The rest of my family is in South Korea and are unable to come,’ he wrote. ‘She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today. Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world.’
By Saturday, the campaign had been shared over 66,000 times, with more than 64,300 people donating over $2,471,210.
By Monday morning, the total reached $2,775,680.
The outpouring of support has prompted Park to write a lengthy update expressing his gratitude to his many well-wishers.
‘I don’t know how any word I write here will ever convey how grateful and blessed I am to receive this much support,’ he wrote. ‘To put it bluntly, I can’t believe you guys exist.’
Park said that he has no time to grieve because he has to plan his mother’s funeral and look after his brother while dealing with problems related to the family’s housing situation and financial woes.
