By Andrian Putra
Atlanta, March 16, 2026 – On the morning of March 16, 2026, the marble corridors of the Georgia State Capitol filled with the quiet weight of memory. Five years to the day after a gunman walked into a series of Atlanta-area spas and murdered eight people — six of them women of Asian descent — legislators, advocates, and members of the Asian American community gathered to honor those lost and to ensure that their stories are not forgotten.
The press conference, organized by the Georgia Legislative Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Caucus, was a moment of mourning, but also of resolve. Speaker after speaker made clear that grief had not faded — and neither had the determination to build something lasting from it.
A Tragedy That Changed a Community
State Rep. Long Tran (D-Dunwoody), a founding member of the Georgia Legislative AAPI Caucus, spoke to the scope of what that day in 2021 set in motion. For the AAPI community in Georgia and across the country, March 16 is not simply a date on a calendar — it is a dividing line.
“A tragedy that changed the course of our AAPI community, not just politically but in our community advocacy and how we approach serving and protecting our community.” — State Rep. Long Tran (D-Dunwoody)
Tran said the attacks accelerated what had long been needed: a more organized, more vocal, more politically engaged AAPI presence in Georgia. In the five years since, he noted, the caucus has grown in membership and ambition, driven in no small part by the community's determination that such a tragedy never be repeated without consequence.
Remember How They Lived
State Rep. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek), a physician and one of the Georgia legislature's most prominent AAPI voices, delivered some of the morning's most personal remarks. She described the eight victims not as casualties or statistics, but as individuals — daughters, mothers, workers, and neighbors — whose lives reflected the full texture of the immigrant American experience.
“Those we lost were people who were deeply loved and needed and whose stories embodied a vibrant picture of the America those of us who grew up in the immigrant community know well.” — State Rep. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek)
Au went further, urging those in attendance — and the broader public — to resist reducing the victims to the manner of their deaths. As Robert Aaron Long awaits trial in Fulton County on hate crime charges and prosecutors pursue the death penalty, she offered a counterweight to the legal proceedings: a call to keep the fullness of each person's humanity at the center of the memory.
“On this five year anniversary, many will remember how they died. But they should be remembered for how they lived.” — State Rep. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek)
Grief That Does Not Leave
Community advocate Cam Ashling, who has been at the forefront of Georgia's AAPI advocacy movement since the shootings, offered the most unvarnished statement of the morning — one that needed no framing or policy context to resonate.
“Every year around 3-16, the grief returns like it happened yesterday.” — Cam Ashling, AAPI Community Advocate
For many in the community, Ashling's words captured what no legislative resolution can fully address: the personal, ongoing pain carried by those who mourn the eight people killed at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, Gold Spa, and Aromatherapy Spa in northeast Atlanta.
Legislation and Justice Still Pending
Monday's gathering also drew attention to unfinished legal and legislative business. In Congress, U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams of Georgia, along with Grace Meng of New York and Judy Chu of California, introduced a formal resolution marking the fifth anniversary. The measure condemns the killings, honors the victims, reaffirms the need to address anti-Asian hate, and calls for the restoration of Department of Justice hate crime programs.
At the state level, Robert Aaron Long — already serving life in prison without parole for the four Cherokee County murders — is scheduled to appear in Fulton County Superior Court on March 30 to face additional murder charges. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is pursuing both hate crime enhancements and the death penalty, arguing that Long's self-described “sex addiction” does not negate the racial targeting of his victims.
The Fulton County victims — Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63 — were all women of Asian descent. Their families and advocates have waited five years for that second trial to begin.
A Community Still Standing
What was most apparent on the steps of the Capitol on Monday was that the Asian American community in Georgia has refused to be defined solely by the violence of March 16, 2021. Organizers pointed to new coalitions, expanded political representation, and deepened networks of mutual aid and advocacy as evidence that something durable emerged from the darkness of that day.
As the press conference drew to a close, the names of the eight victims were read aloud: Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Yaun, Paul Michels, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, and Yong Ae Yue. The silence that followed said what no legislation yet has.
Images from the March 16 – 5th Anniversary Press Conference at Georgia State Capitol:
