Governor orders flags to half-staff to commemorate Atlanta shooting victims

INDIANAPOLIS  – Governor Eric Holcomb is directing flags across the state be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims in the Atlanta area shootings.

Flags should be flown at half-staff until sunset on March 22, per the governor’s office.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been charged with the killing of eight people at three massage parlors in the Atlanta metropolitan area on March 16. Six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent and authorities are investigating whether the killings were hate crimes.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said on March 19 that the four victims at two Atlanta businesses are Soon C. Park, 74; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong A. Yue, 63. Family members identified Grant by her maiden name, Hyun Jung Kim.

The medical examiner performed autopsies on all four victims on March 17, saying all but Kim died Tuesday from gunshots to the head. She died from a gunshot to the chest.

Cherokee County authorities earlier identified the dead there as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49, who owned Youngs.

Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth woman died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa. The medical examiner didn’t immediately say which woman died at Aromatherapy.

The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Asian American state legislators and other community leaders before Biden delivers remarks on the mass shooting during their trip to Atlanta.