Spa owner, employee and Army veteran among those killed in Atlanta shootings

A spa owner, an employee and an Army veteran were among the eight people killed in Tuesday’s shooting rampage in Atlanta.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday released the names of the victims who were killed at Young’s Asian Massage. Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Yan and Daoyou Feng were all left dead when a man open fired at the Atlanta-area spa.

Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz was also shot near the spa, but he survived.

The Atlanta Police Department has not yet released the names of the victims from the shooting at Gold Spa on Piedmond Road. The incident report, however, reveals that all four of those victims were Asian women.

Xiaojie Yan, 49, of Kennesaw, Ga., was the owner of Young’s Asian Massage, according to The New York Times.

She was “just the sweetest, kindest, most giving person,” Greg Hynson, a longtime customer of Yan’s said, according to The Times. “It just doesn’t seem real that she’s not around.”

According to Hanson, Yan was originally from China and has a daughter whom she was “tremendously proud of.”

Daoyou Feng, 44, was an employee at Young Asian Massage, the Times reported.

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth, Ga., was also killed in the shooting. According to the Times, Yaun was on a date with her husband at the spa, when the violence began.

A relative of Yaun, DeLayne Davis, said Yaun was “a good, godly woman,” the Times wrote.

Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta, was a businessman and an Army veteran, according to the Times. Michel’s brother said he served in the U.S. Army infantry in the late 1980s. He was married for 20 years, was a Catholic and a strong political conservative.

“My brother was a very hard-working, loving man,” Michel’s brother told the Times.

Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth was injured in the attack. Hernandez-Ortiz was going to a money exchange business next to the spa when shots were fired.