Husband of Atlanta Victim Soon Chung Park Tried to Perform CPR While Police Stood By

The husband of Soon Chung Park, 74, was reportedly at the crime scene of the shooting in Atlanta that occurred last week, just minutes after his wife’s death.

Believing she had only fainted, Gwangho Lee, 38, attempted to resuscitate his wife using CPR, as the only officer on the scene was “just standing there,” he said in an interview with the Daily Beast.

Lee was on his way to Gold Spa, one of the three Asian-owned businesses that gunman Robert Aaron Long targeted, when he got a text from his wife’s friend that the spa was being robbed. The friend, an employee of the spa that Park managed and cooked for, told Lee to call the police.

He responded with a sigh of relief when he learned that the intruder was firing blanks, as the spa employee had initially believed.

When Lee arrived at the scene, he was met by a police officer and the same friend that he’d been messaging, who then told him that his wife might have fainted. Once inside, he found Park and mistook the blood around her mouth as an injury caused by the fall.

He realized she wasn’t breathing and shouted at an idle police officer, “This is emergency! Where is the ambulance?”

Lee remained by his wife’s side as they eventually took her body away.

Park was one of the six Asian women of the eight total victims that were killed by Long on the evening of March 16.

Long, 21, has since told police that the mass shooting was his way to combat his sex addiction by eliminating temptations, a point now widely criticized by those who believe racial factors played some part in the shooting.

As the investigation continues, many activists are demanding that Long be charged with hate crimes, according to Daily Mail.

Lee first met Park through a mutual friend in 2017, when she helped Lee find work and get a driver’s license before eventually proposing. Lee describes his late wife as youthful, hard-working and “very beautiful.”

Lee has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with his living expenses as he copes with the tragedy. As of this writing, the campaign is close to reaching its $15,000 goal.

“I am currently unable to work due to the trauma I have experienced from this attack and from the death of my wife. I would be very grateful for any support that will allow me to get back on my feet after this terrible loss,” he says in his GoFundMe post.

Feature Image via GoFundMe

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