In the late hours of a Sunday evening in Antioch, Tennessee, Hwarang Joo, a 39-year-old man, was leaving his chicken restaurant for the night, unaware of the violence that was about to unfold. On November 24, 2024, as Joo was pulling out of the shopping center parking lot in his Volkswagen SUV, gunfire suddenly erupted. He was tragically caught in the crossfire of a dispute in which he had no part.
Struck by a bullet from an AR-style rifle, Joo's vehicle accelerated and crashed into a
nearby dental office, causing significant damage. Emergency services arrived at the scene on Bell Road to find him deceased inside his vehicle. The investigation that followed revealed that Joo was an innocent bystander in a conflict between two groups of people. The Korean-American community of greater Nashville rallied around his grieving family, who remembered him as a devoted husband and father to two small children.
The investigation by Metro Nashville Police quickly identified two main suspects: 17-year-old twin brothers, Marcos and Emilio Leyva-Hernandez. It is alleged that the brothers were firing at another vehicle in the parking lot when Joo was tragically hit. Following the release of surveillance photos to the public, information from the community assisted in their identification. Marcos Leyva-Hernandez was apprehended by police on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024. His brother, Emilio, remained at large for a short period before he was also taken into custody on December 6, 2024, after a traffic stop.
Both brothers have been charged in Juvenile Court with criminal homicide for the death of Hwarang Joo. They also face three counts each of attempted criminal homicide related to the occupants of the other vehicle they were allegedly targeting. The three individuals in the other car were not injured and have been interviewed by police. Following their arrests, the Leyva-Hernandez twins were held in juvenile detention. In the wake of this tragedy, Joo's restaurant, Hot Stuff Chicken, reopened about two months later, with the community hoping to remember the legacy of its late owner.
