ATLANTA — Robert Peterson misses spending Sundays with his mom, cooking and running errands. Dana Toole keeps playing a video of her sister just to hear her voice. Michael Webb has started speaking out about gun control since his ex-wife’s fatal shooting.
Robert Peterson holds up a photo of his late mother, Yong Ae Yue, in Atlanta on Thursday. Yue was one of eight people shot dead at various massage shops in the Atlanta area on March 16, 2021. Ron Harris/Associated Press
A year after a gunman killed eight people at three Georgia massage parlors, her family and friends are grappling with grief and trying to heal as they cope with intense public attention focused on the horrific murders.
“Our whole world has just changed. It exploded at that moment,” said Peterson, whose mother Yong Ae Yue was among the dead. “It was a bit overwhelming. We didn’t ask to be here. It was weird having people so interested.”
Robert Aaron Long, 22, shot dead four people – Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 — and seriously injured a fifth person at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County on March 16, 2021. Authorities say he then drove about 30 miles south to Atlanta, where he killed three women — Suncha Kim, 69; Bald Chung Park, 74; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51 – at the Gold Spa, crossed the street and killed Yue, 63, at the Aromatherapy Spa.
Two of the Cherokee County victims and all of the Atlanta victims were women of Asian descent. The killings fueled anger and fear among Asian Americans, who are already seeing a surge in hostility that continues. The shootings have raised awareness of this trend and attracted more people, including non-Asians, to join the movement to fight it.
Many Asian Americans and their allies balked at suggestions that Long, who told investigators he was ashamed of sexual urges and saw the spas as a source of temptation, was not motivated by racial prejudice.
The Cherokee County District Attorney, citing, among other things, the racial diversity of the victims there — two of whom were white and one Hispanic — found no evidence of racial animus. But the Fulton County district attorney is seeking an upgrade to the hate crime statute and says she believes race and gender played a role in the Atlanta murders.
Webb – who was still very close to Tan, his ex-wife – said the shootings opened his eyes to anti-Asian violence and made him concerned for his two daughters, who are both of Asian descent.
Noting that Long bought his gun the day of the shooting, Webb speculated that if there had been a wait, Webb “there is at least a reasonable probability that (Tan) is still alive.”
Webb has been a gun owner for decades and said he has long held moderate views on gun control. Background checks, mandatory safety courses, and wait times make sense to him, and he’s spoken out about them since the shootings.
Toole, Yaun’s half-sister, said she was afraid to leave her home after the shooting and was considering getting a gun. Yaun, newly married with a young daughter and teenage son, was at Cherokee County Spa with her husband, who survived. If she had had a gun, she might still be alive, Toole said.
“She had no way to defend herself,” said Toole, who fears leaving her own children without a mother.
Long pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the Cherokee County shooting in July. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Toole said she was angry watching him in court because she saw no remorse. But she agreed with the district attorney’s decision not to seek the death penalty.
“Just because he took other people’s lives that day, I don’t think that gave us the right to take his life,” she said.
Dana Toole (left) poses with her older sister, Delaina Yaun, at a party in this undated photo. Yaun was one of eight people killed in the shootings at three Georgia massage parlors on March 16, 2021. Dillion Toole via AP
Webb said he and his daughter Jami – Tan’s daughter whom he adopted after they married – supported Long’s death penalty. But after the prosecutor explained the lengthy process as a death penalty case, they quickly came up with the idea of jailing him for life and leaving him behind.
“We were really relieved it was over,” he said.
Long still faces murder charges in the Atlanta murders and has pleaded not guilty. The Fulton County District Attorney is calling for the death penalty in addition to an upgrade in hate crime convictions.
Peterson said he and family members of other victims agreed the death penalty was appropriate, but that he felt it was more important to label the murders as hate crimes. The son of a Korean mother and a black father, he said he was conflicted because he did not support the death penalty and its disproportionate use of people of color in general.
With a background in sociology and social justice, Peterson wants to start an organization in his mother’s honor to fight discrimination and promote social justice.
It’s the little things about his mother — her laugh, her cooking skills, and the way she loved hearing about her sons’ lives — that Peterson misses. He would be annoyed if she called and asked him to drive from Atlanta to her suburban home to change a smoke alarm battery or update her computer. But now he lives in his mother’s house and doing the same small chores for his widowed neighbor “gives me joy,” he said tearfully.
“Feeling wanted, needed, and secure — that’s what I miss the most,” said Peterson.
Toole hasn’t visited her sister’s grave since her funeral because she doesn’t want to believe she’s dead. She collapses when she drives past the cemetery or the spa. On Toole’s 30th birthday, seven weeks after filming, she stayed home because her sister wasn’t there to celebrate as planned.
The close couple loved going to Six Flags amusement park and having water fights at family gatherings. Toole even fondly remembers Yaun’s mistake: “She was always late, but it didn’t matter because she always showed up.”
Although Webb and Tan divorced about a decade ago, they spoke regularly to each other. Tan, who owned the Cherokee County spa, worked constantly and saved most of her income. She planned to retire in her early 50s to travel and spend time with her family.
“The sadness really comes from the fact that her life was cut short before she could fulfill her dream,” Webb said. “She was healthy and strong. It’s just so, so sad.”
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