Ken Jeong donates $50,000 to families of victims in Atlanta spa shootings

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Wednesday, March 24, 2021
All-star comedians join forces for livestream COVID-19 benefit show
On Saturday night, some of the top comedians around the world came together via livestream to lift the nation's spirits as well as to raise money for a coronavirus emergency relief fund.

Actor-comedian Ken Jeong has donated $10,000 each to GoFundMe campaigns that were established in honor of five victims of last week's Atlanta-area mass shooting.

"With regards to the situation in Atlanta and the shootings in Atlanta, my heart, thoughts and prayers go out to all affected," Jeong, a "Masked Singer" panelist who also has a degree in medicine, said during a virtual appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers. "Enough is enough. We're just fed up."

"There's debate whether this crime was racially motivated," Jeong said. "Asian American women are two times as likely to be assaulted in America. This was clearly racially motivated. This was clearly a hate crime."

Along with his $50,000 in donations, the actor shared links to the victims' GoFundMe pages on his Twitter account, which has nearly 1 million followers.

Authorities on Friday released the names of the Atlanta victims hours before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Atlanta to meet with Asian American community leaders.

New mom, Army vet among 8 killed in Georgia spa shootings

Police say "nothing is off the table" in their investigation of the deadly shootings at Atlanta-area spas.

Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, were shot in the head, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office said. Family members identified Grant by her maiden name, Hyun Jung Kim. Suncha Kim, 69, died from a gunshot to the chest, authorities said.

Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth woman died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa.

Four people were killed and a fifth wounded at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs.

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.

Jeong donated $10,000 each to the GoFundMe pages in honor of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Xiaojie Tan and Yong Yue.

Asian American women say Atlanta shootings point to relentless, racist tropes

Asian American women say they have often been harassed based on their race in the wake of a gunman's rampage killing 6 Asian women.

The video in the featured media above is from a previous report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.