A sense of calm was settling over the Su Jung Health Salon in Norcross, Georgia, on the evening of Tuesday, February 21, 2012. Inside the spa, located in the 6000 block of Buford Highway, patrons were unwinding. One man was drifting into the serenity of a massage when a loud bang from the front of the business shattered the peace. Seconds later, a co-owner of the spa stumbled into the massage room, his shirt soaked in blood, before collapsing to the ground. In that moment of horror, a tranquil evening spiraled into a scene of unimaginable violence that would leave five people dead and rock the local Korean-American community.
The woman who died in the violent outburst was Kum Hi Song, a 61-year-old Asian female. The Norcross Police would later piece together the tragic events of that night. Surveillance footage showed a man walking into the business and speaking to one of the victims before gunfire erupted. The gunman was identified as 59-year-old Jeong Soo Paek.
In a shocking act of familial violence, Paek shot and killed his two sisters and their husbands before turning the gun on himself.
Among the victims were Kum Hi Song and her husband, Byong Ok Kang, who was 64. Also killed were Kum Hi Song's sister, 57-year-old Kum Sook Kim, and her husband, Tae Yol Kim, who was 55. The family members were all co-owners of the spa. A witness who was present during the shooting described the scene as "horrible," recounting the sudden shock and his immediate call to 911. In the aftermath, police confirmed it was a murder-suicide, possibly stemming from a family dispute. Friends of the family mentioned that the business had been experiencing financial difficulties for several years, though police did not officially state a motive.
The brutal event sent a wave of shock through Norcross, a city of about 9,000 residents that had recorded no homicides in 2011 and typically averaged about one per year. The five deaths at the spa, coupled with another shooting death earlier that month, gave the city its highest homicide toll for a single year in decades. The tragedy resonated deeply within the Korean-American community, where the family was known and respected. Community organizations, including the Korean-American Association of Greater Atlanta, stepped in to help the surviving family members with the funeral costs.
Separate funeral services were held for the victims. A service for Kum Hi Song and her husband, Byong Ok Kang, took place that Saturday at a funeral home in Decatur. They were laid to rest at North Atlanta Memorial Park in Dunwoody. The following day, a funeral was held for the other two victims, Kum Sook Kim and Tae Yol Kim, as well as for the shooter, Jeong Soo Paek. During this service, a pastor delivered a message of forgiveness for Paek's actions, and a slideshow of family photos showed happier times of fishing, horseback riding, and graduations.
The investigation into the deaths at the Su Jung Health Salon concluded that it was a murder-suicide. With the perpetrator deceased at the scene, the case was considered closed by law enforcement. The motive behind Jeong Soo Paek's devastating actions was never definitively released to the public, leaving a painful and unanswered question for the community and surviving relatives. The case remains a somber chapter in the city's history, a stark reminder of a day when a family dispute culminated in a horrific and public tragedy.
