Grandmother's slaying shakes neighborhood

By Jennifer Brett

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Someone barged into the MLK Jr. Drive Coin Laundry Tuesday morning and stole a life and $2.

Here’s what the killer left behind.

Relatives who adored the elderly victim, a dedicated church member who still drove herself to work every day and made sure the floors were always swept.

Neighbors who looked forward to her warm smile (and their kids, who looked forward to the candy she kept behind the counter) when they trundled in with towers of laundry.

And community members who must pass the scene of another senseless shooting on their way to pick up their children from school.

“It’s sad,” the Rev. C.J. Quinn of Temple Baptist Church said Wednesday afternoon. He’d rolled up to the Atlanta laundromat where Dooran Yoo was shot to pay his respects. “All we can do is pray.”

Yoo had just unlocked her family’s business when she was accosted about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. Surveillance cameras caught images of her defending herself with a broom, but the murderer wasn’t captured on film. Neighbors hope the culprit will be now be captured by law enforcement. No arrests had been made as of late Wednesday.

“It’s scary,” said Joyce Burton. “My babies play out in the yard. It makes you wonder if he stays around here. Is it someone we know? Is it someone we see? You just never know. People are treacherous.”

She has been doing her laundry at Yoo’s shop for about four years, often taking her grandchildren, fans of the candy Yoo sold.

“I don’t know whether they’re going to open it back up or not, but if they do, you won’t see me there,” Burton said. “I’ve got to find me somewhere else to go.”

The funeral for Yoo, an active member of Antioch Korean Baptist Church, is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at Georgia Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery in Marietta, said cousin and family spokesman Kevin Cho. She will be buried next to her husband. Relatives are flying in from all over the country, united in grief and shock.

“She had a very strong mind,” Cho said. “She still worked. She still drove. She’s always been motivated.”

Yoo’s family, which came from South Korea, has been in the United States for about 20 years, he said. She lived first in Savannah before moving here, and the family has run the coin laundry for about 15 years, he said.

“She is a very sweet, calm lady,” Cho said. “She always participated in family events. She raised her own three sons and one daughter and helped others.”

She helped Esther Zachary, too. Once a week, always early in the morning, Zachary has gone to the laundromat next to her apartment complex. Yoo kept the place spotless but always made time to greet each patron.

“It really hurt me when I heard it. I shed a little tear,” said Zachary, who had planned to do laundry Tuesday and changed her mind for some reason. “Maybe God led me not to go.”

When she started going years ago, Zachary couldn’t quite figure out how to work the hulking machines at first. Yoo’s English wasn’t perfect. So the two grandmothers helped each other.

“She knew I needed help,” Zachary said. “I’m old. I’m 63.”

Yoo was 80.