Shooting victim was targeted before

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Qiu Xiufang's neighbors in the Memorial Drive Plaza shopping center knew she was resilient.

Xiufang, shot once in the torso while delivering an order from her Magic Wok restaurant Monday night, and her family had been victimized by criminals before, said Rod Stewart, who works next door. But that didn't keep them from working 12-hour days and on holidays.

Once, Stewart said,  Xiufang, 46, and her daughter and son were followed home from the Magic Wok and beaten.

"All of them had bruises the next day," he said. "But they were there working, like always."

Xiufang's son and daughter were working Monday night when their mother returned from a delivery to the Highland Run East apartments on Abberley Way near Stone Mountain. Xiufang, who was sitting in her parked car in the apartment complex, was approached by a stranger who shot and robbed her, police say.

"She fled the scene and went back to her job" two miles away on Memorial Drive, said DeKalb Police spokesman Jason Gagnon.

"That shows you something," said Devone Slaughter, who owns a barbershop a few doors down from the Magic Wok. "They are hard workers."

On Tuesday, the Magic Wok was closed. Xiufang, the owner, remains at Grady Memorial Hospital in stable condition as DeKalb County police question four people who were detained after her shooting, Gagnon said.

"A lot of people targeted them," said Kim Stewart, who works with her brother at the Four Seasons gift shop. Xiufang and her daughter worked up front at the Magic Wok, alternating deliveries while her son cooked the food. Last month, Stewart said, someone stole money from the Xiufang's register on a busy Saturday night.

With cash on hand and two women working the front, "they were easy targets," said Rod Stewart.