>> announcer: this is a special edition of "20/20." the deadliest mass murder since 2019. >> eight people killed. seven women. six for of asian descent. all fellow americans. each one of them, we mourn. >> fear, brutal assault, and hate all in the shadow of a pandemic. >> the shootings took place as violent hate crimes and discrimination of asian-american has risen over the last year. >> why is this happening, and what's being down to stop it? >> what happens right now and over the course of the coming months will send a message for generations to come as to will

whether we matter. >> our reporters are live across the country with their experiences. here now, david muir, eva pilgrim, and juju chang. >> good evening. and welcome to a special edition of "20/20," murder in atlanta. we come on air tonight with a nation angry, on edge, and grieving over a wave owe attacks against asian-americans here in the u.s. millions were stunned by a gunman's shooting rampage here in atlanta, killing eight people, six of asian descent. tonight we are learning more about those eight victims. >> juju, we were all watching at president biden and vice president harris came before cameras late in atlanta today after meeting with asian-american leaders, community leader in the wake of the shootings. the president call it heart wrenching. the spike if attacks against asian-americans in the u.s., calling it a year of living in

fear. and vice president harris addressing the loss, the pain. >> six out of the eight people killed on tuesday night were of asian descent. seven fwere women. the shootings took place in businesses owned by asian-americans. the shootings took place as violent hate crimes and discrimination against asian-americans has risen dramatically over the last year and more. >> whatever the motivation, we know this -- too many asian-americans walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake. >> this week's shooting in atlanta is the deadliest shooting in atlanta in two years. we have covered so many of these tragedies, each making a powerful impact on american

lives. school children in parkland and newtown, concertgoers in las vegas. >> eva, in atlanta this week of course the horrific shootings force a nation to address questions of racism, sexism and, the destructive power of words along the way. we begin tonight back at the scene in atlanta, and juju. >> david, this nightmare chain of events began unfolding in the atlanta area on tuesday night. the gunman opening fire at one bsiness, driving 30 miles to target victims at two other businesses, including here at gold spa behind me. authorities say he had been to these establishments before, and for police it was a race against time to catch the shooter before he could kill again. on a damp and dreary afternoon, terror and horror seizes the atlanta area as a lone assailant launches an hours long shooting rampage against multiple

asian-owned spas. >> some guy came in and shoot the gun, so everybody heard the gunshots. >> we do not have a witness who's alive right now. >> 20-year-old robert aaron long arrives at the spa. he allegedly sits in his car for almost an hour. around 4:50 he enters young's and opens fire. police arrive within minutes finding a massacre. >> sounded like -- >> reporter: four are dead. xiaojie tan went by emily. she was a licensed therapist. she would have turned 50 yesterday. delaina young leaves behind a son and a baby. she was getting a couples

massage with her husband mario who was in a separate room and able to escape. [ speaking foreign language ] >> paul andre michels, 54 of atlanta. daoyou feng, 44, whose address wasn't immediately known. a fifth person is in stable condition, 30-year-old elcias hernandez-ortiz. he was leafing the store next door and hit. >> we never know if you're at the wrong place at the wrong time, and i feel like that's what happened to him. >> police getting surveillance video and posting images online. long's father calls 911. >> i was there speaking with the family. they were very helpful in this apprehension. >> almost an hour after the first shooting 30 miles away, police respond to a call about a

robbery at the gold spa. it's in an area with a strip club and other spas. >> we heard numerous gunshots coming from across the street. >> reporter: inside the gold spa, police find three women shot. one was hyun jung grant. >> she was quite literally the only thing that kept us running. >> reporter: officers are alerted to another shooting across the spritreet at the 24 r spa. >> some lady is hurt. everybody scared so they're hiding but the lady is passed out. >> reporter: inside they find a korean woman dead from a gunshot wound. the victims are soon park, age 34, soon kim and yong yue.

there's still so much about victims we don't know. >> we need to make sure if we have any asian spas, they need to be checked. >> reporter: long's parents tells authorities they have a tracker app on his cell phone and it's activated. authorities locate long going south on interstate 75, disable his vehicle, arrest him. >> he apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places, and it's a temptation for him he wanted to eliminate. >> it's the biggest mass shooting in this country since 2019, coming in the midst of an enormous spike in crimes against asians and pacific islanders. this week alone, an 83-year-old asian man assaulted. parts of his neck assaulted. a 53 asian man beaten, nearly blinded in one eye, and a 76-year-old asian woman punched

in one eye, left bleeding. >> for over a year, asian-americans have been fighting an additional virus of hit and bigotry. our community is bleeding. we are in pain, and for the last year, we have been screaming out for help. >> reporter: the fear in the asian community, especially in atlanta, now at crisis levels. how's it going? irene pan owns a spa a few minutes from where the shooting took place. when the sheriff said, it's not race, it's sex addiction. >> i don't think so. some people they can -- we're not allowed to say anything or argument, they shoot you. >> reporter: she's now considering buying a gun for protection. tonight, randy park who lost his mother telling us he's having a hard time putting his gratitude into words. the go fund me page he set up hoping to pay rent for a month

and pay for the funeral has raised nearly $2 million in 24 hours, donations coming from from around the world, reflecting all emotion tonight. we have been talking with the grieving families of some of the victims of the attacks, including jamie webb of, alongside her father, left to reflect on the lives and the loss. >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: don't be sorry. what does your heart feel like right now? >> empty. she never finish high school, and she -- like, when i told her i decided to go to college, she was so happy. she just wanted to celebrate. she's very proud. >> reporter: you were the embodiment of your mother's dreams. >> yes. >> when you a you this unfold, what went through your mind? >> my first thought was for jamie. life-changing experience for both of us. the last couple of years she would say, i'm going to be able

to retire soon. >> reporter: her dream was to retire early, and yesterday was her 50th birthday. that must have been a hard day for you. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: when you think of your favorite memories of your mom, what are they? >> eating sushi before she goes back to work. >> what do you think she sacrificed along the way for your benefit? >> her whole life. any dream or aspiration she could have had. she loved clubbing, partying, karaoke, singing. she loved music. >> reporter: what went through your mind about all the things you have to shoulder now? >> i'm a train wreck at night when i'm alone. >> what do you miss the most? >> her. >> all of her. >> yeah. >> how do you want your mom to be remembered? >> that she's a great mother. she want us to have a good life.

that's why she worked so hard. >> your mom would be very proud of you. >> yes. >> and i know she was. >> reporter: and you can see the outpouring here. candles and flowers blossoming on the sidewalk in front of gold spa behind me. and notes in korean. and alongside the stop the hate hashtags, handwritten notes that say, we stand with our neighbors against racism. david? >> we certainly do, juju. as we try to focus on these families we are also learning more tonight about the alleged gunman. 21-year-old robert aaron long. there we main questions about his motive and authorities in georgia say they have not ruled out whether this was a hate crime. >> authorities say he bought the gun he use on the day of the shooting that day and they believe he was on the way to kill again when he was stopped. here's abc's steve osunsami. >> reporter: this is what

heartbreak looks like across america, the strangers who are joining the families of victims to cry. this is also what it looks like to stand against hate -- people of all colors speaking up and marching out for asian-americans who feel under attack. in all, eight people were gunned down in this killing spree, and the number one question for the accused murder, why? >> the suspect did take responsibility for the shootings. >> reporter: investigators say that 21-year-old robert aaron long told them he struggled with a sex addiction and somehow in his mind he thought he'd fix himself by targeting the spas where he was a regular. the gun he used, they say he bought it here on the day of the shoots. if they hadn't stopped him, they think he would have made it to florida. authorities in atlanta suburbs and the city have charged him with eight counts of murder. rodney bryant is the interim

police chief in atlanta where the killings spread between two spas. >> i think the people thought it was all wrapped up once we made the arrest buck now this is where the real work begins. >> what do you think about the chances of this becoming a hate crimes case? >> it's just too early for me to make that determination, because there are so many questions that are left unanswered. you have to look at the victims that we have in the city of atlanta. all our victims were female. all our victims were asian. there's so much more that needs to be uncovered. >> reporter: the tone is different in the suburbs where the first victims died and the accused killer is in custody. >> he does claim it was not racially motivated. >> reporter: the sheriff's office in the suburbs is having to develop himself after their spokesperson came across to sound racially insensitive after saying this about the gunman. >> he was pretty much fed up and at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.

>> reporter: after that it was a bad day for the sheriff who removed this captain from briefings on the case. didn't help when people discovered this now deleted facebook post from the captain, telling friends to buy t-shirts saying covid-19, imported from china. it's the same message people in the street are trying to fight. here in atlanta, authorities say they get it, and there's lots of work to do. >> it frightens asian americans, not just here but across the country. people are scared. >> we recognize the concern and the pain that they're going through. we're here to make sure that this doesn't fall through the cracks, that we not miss one stone as it relates to investigating this case. >> announcer: moments from now, senator tammy buduckworth and h concerns about crimes against asians going unreported. >> the chinese virus. the chinese virus.

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welcome back to this special edition of "20/20." there were powerful and raw moments on capitol hill late this week. testimony about the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against asian-americans. illinois senator tammy duckworth adding her voice to so many others, demanding action when it comes to crimes against asian-americans. most often going underreported in this country. and the destructive power of words used over the past year during this pandemic. i asked senator duckworth about all of this. thank you for being here tonight. i know you testify on capitol hill this week, the first hearing on asian-american hate in this country in three decades. you are very honest. great to have you here with us tonight. i did want to get your reaction to president biden in atlanta tonight. he said words of consequences, that there should be called coronavirus, full stop. vice president harris said last year leaders with the biggest

pulpit in the world were spreading hate. do you agree with that? >> yes, i do see a direct link between these hateful terms that president trump has used and many of his supporters have used to call the coronavirus, and really it's just a further effort to scapegoat and shift the blame away from his own failures on the asian-american community. unfortunately it's grown into an all-out attack on asian-americans in this country, and that's not acceptable. >> you call for formal investigations into crimes against asian-americans in this country that you say have underreported and have for many years. you heard with the fbi director said in the last 24 hours that what we saw in atlanta this week, he said that it does not appear, the motive to be racially motivated. do you agree with him?

>> i think it's too soon to know what the motivation was in atlanta. i will tell you, though, the issue is much bigger than the shootings in atlanta. we have seen that race crime, hate crimes against asian-americans have risen by over 150% in the last year alone in our major american cities. >> i wonder if you took note that we heard from president biden and vice president harris that whatever the motivation -- they seem to put that to the side -- that this is bigger than that, that we must acknowledge asian-americans wake up in fear of verbal attacks. they talked about the attacks on asian-americans verbally and that some have been physically attacked, have been killed, that this is real, and regardless of what we have seen just this week in atlanta and however this is labeled by the local authorities, ultimately, that we must have a bigger picture here about what is going on. >> very much so. i think the president and vice president were right on point there to say that this is a

bigger trend in the nation and that we have to stop it. and as leaders we must make it clear that race crimes and hate crimes against aapis are not acceptable. they're not acceptable against anyone, but there's a real problem where an entire community of americans have been targeted and scapegoated. that's a keyword the president used, scapegoating, because that's what happened to asian-americans throughout our nation's history. >> we heard from the brave son, he and his mother left without their mother, his name is randy. he penned a letter about his mom saying she is a single mother who dedicated her whole life to provide field goal my brother and i. she was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today. i'm curious, how do people watching who feel for the families and want to hate to stop, are wondering, what can i do as a lone american, what

would you say to them? >> stand up and speak out when you see instances of racism happening. you have to call out bad behavior instead of turning the other way. we have had asian-americans attacked in public places and no no one comes to their rescue. it happens on a daily basis. people make racist comments in a grocery store. my own mother has to endure racist comments from other shoppers, and people around may hear, but say nothing. every individual can make a difference. you can teach your children that these are racist terms and this is not acceptable. you can model the best behavior, and call it out when it's happening because it's happening across the country. >> hopefully we started that conversation tonight. senator duckworth, thanks for taking the time with us. >> thanks for having me on. >> senator duckworth making it clear, everyone has a role the play and really does believe americans are not powerless in this moment.

>> we can all play a role. such an important message. president biden delivering that powerful message in atlanta earlier tonight that words have consequences, reiterating, this is the coronavirus, full stop. president biden saying the use of hate words and hateful acts must come to an end. here's abc's zohreen shah. >> reporter: condemnation of the recent rash of anti-asian violence from president biden and vice president harris. the country's highest ranking asian-american official. >> a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. >> reporter: saying hateful wrds and deeds against fellow americans must stop. >> we cannot be complicit. we have to speak out. we have to act. >> reporter: a call for action during the nationwide rise in covid-fueled attacks on asian americans. videos like this sparking outrage. the senseless death of

84-year-old thai immigrant knocked to the ground on his morning walk causing many to stand up against asian hate. >> seeing these elderly asians being attacked viciously i was paralyzed. >> reporter: actress olivia munn says her mom's friend was attacked. cabtured on surveillance. >> we have been hearing about these attacks for a long time, especially last year when the pandemic was -- >> reporter: the words can cut just as deep. >> asian piece of [ bleep ]. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: then we have karen. >> go back to whatever [ bleep ] asian country you belong in. >> it's in the psyche of this country where it's somehow okay to abuse asian-americans we're being scapegoated. >> reporter: she has studied anti-asian discrimination.

>> we have seen physical attacks. what's the impact of the emotional attacks, the words? >> words are extremely powerful. our former president used a lot of words to describe the coronavirus. >> the china flu. the china virus. the plague from china. we have to be accurate. kung flu. >> unapology itically, he helped to stoke the fires of anti-asian violence. >> it reinforced a particular association with the virus, something deadly, with a group of people. >> reporter: and language of hate, it seems begets the violence. asian violence is up 150% in major u.s. cities. accords to an nyu survey, 34% of asians say they have been victims of verbal abuse since the start of the pandemic. 24% kite workplace discrimination, and 16% say they

were spit at. >> 4 out of 10 have had one of these experiences directly in the past year. it shows how underreported these acts of violence and discrimination are. >> reporter: but a growing movement of young people refusing to stay silent. >> we're sick and tired of being invisible and ignored in our country. the pain of the asian community has been muted for decades. >> power of words. we'll be right back in a moment with former presidential candidate andrew yang and evelyn yang and her own bravely, what she has faced. a special edition of "20/20" continues here. see you in a moment.

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♪ ♪ and welcome back to our "20/20" special murder in atlanta. former presidential candidate and current new york mayoral candidate, andrew yang, is addressing the mass shooting in atlanta and the rise in asian american attacks across the country. his wife evelyn tweeting about

the intersection and the backlash that occurred when revealing her own sexual assault. thank you both for being here. i want to start with you, you said that the fetishizing of asian women is real, and you have spoken out, why is it such an important topic for you? >> well, thank you, for having u today. you know, the shooter targeted asian american women. and of course, that's very, hits very close to home. you know, when i came forward about being sexually assaulted by my doctor last year, i was not expecting the racial element that i experienced. but i wasn't surprised. you know, i got some comments that were racially charged like you wanted his -- and other

things that were worse than that, that i can't even speak. and i think that the problem here is this stereo typing of asian women that is harmful, because it implies fault on the part of the victim. asian women are either too symptom submissive that we let it happen or that we are hypersexualized and we were asking for it. you know, these are two just very toxic, obviously, elements these stereotypes and they are barriers to asian women coming forward about sexual assault when you know, culturculturally

less likely that asian american can come forward to begin with. >> i know you both -- right, i know you both have fought against the cultural tendency toward silence, andrew, you have been a ally for your wife through her ordeal, how can men be allies in the fight? >> well, men have to speak up when we see somethng in terms of mistreatment of women and certainly if there's a woman in our life that is being subject to some form of abuse or harassment and men are around other men and we can do more. we have to be able to look out for the women in our lives and really the people in our community more than, more than is happening in many environments right now. >> and yet, evelyn, you have spoken out about experiencing covid racism first hand, what did you mean by that? >> so, i think like many asians

in the last year we have experienced belittling, just on the street. you know, my first brush with covid related racism was a comment by a woman who said something to me along the lines of stay away from me, i don't want your diseases. and i think what was most disturbing about the encounter was that it was in broad daylight, she said it in front of her friend. like it was completely acceptable when it's not and i think it speaks to the normalization of what is happening with in our community, which is the dehumanization of asian americans. >> right. >> and even -- >> andrew, sorry, andrew in the ten seconds we have left, what can the asian american community do to rally around this issue and stop the hate? >> thefirst thing we have to do is let people know that this is happening, this is real, it's getting stronger.

it'sgetting more dangerous, and now, juju, a lot of the incidents are not reported and we have to change that. >> thank you for being part of the change, andrew and evelyn yang. thanks for being with us. david? >> thank you, and when we come back, asian americans from every corner of the country in their own words on the hurt caused by stereotypes and why we can no longer look the other way. and former nba star jeremy lin spooking out and sometimes worrying he is saying too. b but the moment is here and he is not about to stop now. we will be right back.

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♪ ♪ welcome back to the special edition of "20/20." you know, asian americans represent people from more than 48 countries around the globe. >> it's really important to remember that, and despite that, eva has reported on how often they are lumped together in to a single community here hin the

u.s. >> the single factor so often rooted in xenophobic and otherism, and treated as foreigners who are not full americans. almost as soon as asian immigrants set foot in the country, ethnic scapegoating followed behind. chinese workers helping to build the rail roads heard they were taking american jobs. >> asians were never regarded as americans. meaning they were never given citizens rights at the beginning of the republic. >> in 1871 a violent mob in los angeles lynched 17 chinese residents, a massacre fueled by white resentment toward the growing immigrant population. in 1882, the animosity led congress to pass the first and only law, restricting an ethnic law coming in to the country. the chinese exclusion act, it lasted until 1943. >> you make them the other

through legislation. such as the passage of the chinese exclusion act. to be an other is not simply oh, are y you are someone else, you are just not an american. it's not like that. it's also about the process of being objectified of being less than human. >> soon after what many consider one of the most shameful moments in american history. japanese americans treated as the suspect enemy in their own nation. placed in inininin >> 2/3 of those people were u.s. born americans and were forceablely incarcerated without due process. >> for decades hollywood has both reflected and re-enforced portra portrayals of asian americans as

perpetual foreigners, turning racism in to laughs. >> when you see nothing but the clownish, bafoonish, alien image being painted on our faces, then, it's so much easier to not think of us as human. >> but of all the racist stereotypes, some of the most insidious are those that hypersexual size asian women, frequently portraying them as sexual objects. or like in rush hour 2. asian women as the focus of the western male gaze is nothing new. playing out in real life with the u.s. military in asia fueling sex industries that exploited asian women. but it's this scene from full metal jacket that has permiated american culture. those words used repeatedly in movies like the 40-year-old v

virg virgin. >> and southpark. those are the lines that people remember and it haunts us. >> images have power. stories have power. >> activists say the toxic mix of racism and misogyny in these portrayals influence the way asian women are treated in society. >> when you think of humans as objects and erase their human ani ani humanity, it's no surprise that we are treated as worthless. >> racism and xenophobic are national problems. the only way to survive this pandemic, the only way to survive these violent attacks is to work together and recognize

our common humanity. >> and so many voices have been speaking out about the spike in asian-american attacks, one of the most vocal, former nba story on, jeremy lin. he joins us now and i know you started speaking out because something happened to you on the basketball court. tell us about that. >> for me, i was just playing and was called coronavirus during the game. but you know, i think that was just kind of a microcosm of everything that has been happening. the rhetoric from the previous administration and again, a lot of these micro aggressions are things that you have been talking about just now in the video and it's starting to on come out in different ways. what i went through was just verbal. it was, you know, just a verbal thing, and i'm not saying it's okay. but i'm saying what we are talking about, and what we are seeing right now are physical acts of violence.

we are seeing lives being taken and it's not okay. and we cannot say nothing or do nothing. we must speak out. and that's, that's what, you know, i plan on doing and you know, that's what a lot of other people are doing right now as well. which is encouraging. >> you have actually recently said that you worry that you are encouraging more hate by speaking on ospeak ing out, why is that? >> it's just human nature for me to think, man, am i making a difference? am i helping things trend in the right direction? and for me, you know, i'm kind of thinki iing as i have been monitoring, things seem to be getting worse by the day, andthe week. there's more headlines and more and more ridiculous acts of violence. are the headlines causing more hate and more division?

these are natural questions that i'm wrestling with and thinking through. but at the same time, we are at a critical juncture and i feel it's important to speak out and to say something and to stand up the people who might not have - that voice to be heard which is really, really sad. >> so my question to you is, you know, where do we go from here? there's so many stereotypes about asian men. we barely see asian male athletes as public figures, how do we change that narrative? >> you know, i think -- and i love the clip that you guys showed. we are able to see it as multi-generational and systemic. it's not something that will change overnight or something that will happen easily. it's going back to the railroad. when you think of the marketing and pictures at the end, they put the last pin in and nailed

it sdpoun adown all this, there asians to be seen. you see the exclusion act and the japanese internment camps. it's a long, deep, deep rooted issue. but what we can do is talk and bring awareness about it. in the least, by talking about it, more people will hear. and there will be more accountability and i think naming and having the issue be up front in conversation is the start of it. and then, it's going to be on policy makers and different, you know, things going forward. at the very least, that's where we can start right now. >> jeremy lin, people just want to be seen. that is definitely the message. we appreciate you being here with us tonight. and david, you know, he portrays such an important image for people to see that is so against the staerstereotypes. >> i love that conversation. so brave and candid about the

power of his own words and wondering if they will have impact. and when we come back, the stories from all over the country. the attacks happening in big cities, and in small towns and in our local abc reporters are standing by with what they have witnessed in their own communities. this is powerful and eye opening. we will be right back. this is powerful and eye opening. we'll be right back.

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if cologuard is right for you. i'm on it. sounds like a plan. the rise in asian-american attacks across the country. >> and the big cities and the small towns across the country every incident raising the level of fear and anger, not just in if asian-american community, but really everywhere. and we want to bring in our reporters from some of our abc stations across the country. i know you have reported so often on how difficult it is to prosecute hate crimes.

>> that's right, david, hate crimes are the only crimes that require a proof of motive. so what prosecutors need is some kind of racial slur being said is. but often times no words are exchanged so what we have been doing in the reporting is asking the question, why not, in the gray areas where investigators struggle with how to categorize the crime, in absence of motive, investigate the possibility of a hate crime. david. >> cefaan, great to have you with us. stick with us. we will bring in our reporter from philadelphia, wrote an op-ed about the hateful speech that asian-americans were experiencing due to covid and what she wrote came true. >> i know it was right at the beginning and you describe subtle racism against asians being ignored. what do you think people can do to combat this? >> eva, an honor to be with you

tonight. one way to combat this is to educate, call it out for what it is. damaging and unacceptable. we know words, pictures, so-called jokes have a pro found impact, perpetuating the false notion that we are foreigner of the enemy. and the violence we are seeing is deeply rooted in those feelings. i will give you a couple of examples of what can happen when we shine a light or call out the behavior. in philadelphia, a shop posted a racist menu item, somethng called covid mac and cheese. a union labor board member posted a racist meme, when those stories were amplified, the menu item was removed and the board member resigned. those are results and consequences and that is one way to change the narrative in the country. >> there's power in speaking up. thank you. >> and now to out our abc

station? kgo. >> a lot of your reporting has become victims found you and used direct messaging on social media. they feel safe muff enough to t you what is happening in their community that way. >> yes, these are victims at the lowest points in their lives. they are petrified and they are afraid to report because they don't think others will believe them, or two, there could be retaliati retaliation. so they go to social media to share their story and be empowered. >> thank you at home for watching. it's just the beginning from all of us here at abc news, good night. new information tonight

about when vaccines will be available to every adult in the state and three feet in a world of difference