Duluth, GA: Gwinnett murder-suicide victims ID'd as married couple

DULUTH, Ga. —

Gwinnett County police have identified the people involved in a murder-suicide that left a woman seriously injured.

Police said Sylvia Junn, 44, confronted her husband, Charles Junn, and a woman in the parking lot of the Gwinnett Place Commons office complex off Satellite Boulevard on Tuesday night. All three work in a law firm in the office complex.

The co-workers were well-known in the county’s Korean-American business community.

“It was a just a total shock,” said Travis Kim, of the Korean American Association of Greater Atlanta.

Police said attorney Sylvia Junn shot her husband and the woman, who police have not identified, and fled the scene. An off-duty officer who pulled in to help told police that Sylvia Junn returned almost immediately still armed with the handgun.

When back-up officers arrived, Sylvia Junn refused to drop her weapon and shot herself in the head, police said.

Police said an investigation revealed it is likely that Charles Junn and the woman had an affair.

The injured woman is in critical condition at an Atlanta-area hospital, police said.
The couple has a 16-year-old son.

Police said they will not reveal further information about the people involved or the circumstances of the shooting.

The shooting is the latest tragedy in a string of violent incidents in the Gwinnett Korean American community in five months.

In December, an altercation led to the stabbing death of a 32 year man outside an after-hours club, Duluth police said.

Two months later, Norcross police responded to a mass shooting at a spa.

"I don’t know why this kind of tragic incidents happen," Kim said.

Kim believes the incidents are not the sign of trouble in the Korean community, but likely the result of growing pains.

He said his association has launched a campaign to educate people within the community and encourage a peaceful coexistence, and prevent future tragedies.

Kim said there are 100,000 Korean Americans in the metro Atlanta area and half of them live in Gwinnett County.

He said as the community grows, so does the need to reach out to new members and educate them on the resources that are out there for them.