Millions of dollars have poured in to help the families of those killed in a series of shootings at Atlanta-area spas last Tuesday, as protests took place across the country this weekend calling for an end to anti-Asian violence and hate crimes, which have risen dramatically since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Shootings at three Atlanta-area spas resulted in the deaths of eight individuals. (Image courtesy of Megan Varner/Getty Images… [+] Images)
courtesy of Getty Images
The family of Hyun Jung Grant, one of the eight persons killed in the killings, has donated approximately $3 million from over 72,000 donors as of this writing, more than double the amount raised late Friday afternoon.
Over the weekend, GoFundMe projects for the families of additional victims grew in popularity, with one for Delaina Yaun garnering more than $105,000 by Monday morning and another for Paul Michels, the sole male killed in the killings, raising more than $60,000.
Over the weekend, a fundraising effort for Elcias Hernandez Ortiz, the lone survivor of Tuesday’s shooting, nearly tripled in size to just under $300,000.
Following Tuesday’s shootings and rising levels of anti-Asian violence and hatred, cities around the country, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco, held marches and vigils in support of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Suncha Kim, 69, Grant, 51, Soon C. Park, 74, Yong A. Yue, 63, Yaun, 33, Xiaojie Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, and Michels, 54, were among those slain in Tuesday’s shooting. Hernandez-Ortiz was shot and is in stable condition, according to reports.
March 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C., a march toward Chinatown. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images/Alex Wong)
courtesy of Getty Images
On March 21, 2021, members and allies of the Asian-American community gather in Columbus… [+] Park in New York City for a “protest against hate.” (AFP photo by Ed JONES) (Photo courtesy of ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images)
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The protests appear to have focused on gun control and anti-racism, with widespread outrage over the ease with which the gunman is alleged to have obtained a firearm and condemnation of police officers’ handling of the case. Captain Jay Baker of Cherokee County was publicly chastised after he appeared to sympathize with the suspect, who he described as having “a pretty awful day” and was motivated by sex addiction rather than bigotry. In three separate shootings at Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday night, eight individuals were killed, six of them were Asian. The suspect, a 21-year-old Caucasian guy named Robert Aaron Long, is thought to be the sole perpetrator of the crimes. Long was ejected from his church on Sunday, claiming that he is no longer a “regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.”
3,795. According to a statistic collected by nonprofit alliance Stop AAPI Hate, that’s the number of anti-Asian hate incidents registered across the US between March 2020 and February 2021. Hate crimes increased by roughly 150 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, making the increase a national issue that had aroused widespread alarm even before Tuesday’s shootings.
In the aftermath of the shootings, former President Donald Trump’s terminology has come under renewed attention, particularly his repeated references to Covid-19 as the “Chinese Virus” and “kung fever.” Trump’s use of the phrase in a tweet was linked to an increase in anti-Asian content on the platform, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated Trump’s repeated labeling of coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu” contributed to a spike in hate crimes against Asian-Americans.
In just 16 hours, over $1 million was raised on GoFundMe for the family of the Atlanta shooting victim (Forbes)
Donations flood in for the victims’ families of the Atlanta tragedy (AP)
Authorities Identify Remaining Atlanta Shooting Victims (WSJ) Protests Across the United States Call for an End to Anti-Asian Violence (WSJ) (Forbes) Continue reading
