At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Brian Aniki entered a gym for his first taekwondo session and immediately observed something unique about the older student instructing it.
“He was 6-foot something, and he just looked so calm and collected — an absolutely stoic leader,” Aniki recalled. “I thought, ‘This is a guy I can learn from.’”
The team leader, Kyu Cho, who became a close friend and mentor, won over more than just Aniki. According to numerous friends and former teammates, Cho was an accomplished martial artist who also excelled in the classroom. He was also wise and loving beyond his years.
After graduating from college, Cho attended law school, married, and moved back to Texas with his wife, Cindy Cho. There, they had two children: William, now six, and James, who would be three. When the former college classmates reconnected some years ago, Aniki can still clearly recall the joy in Cho’s voice as he talked about William’s early successes. Aniki remarked, “He loved being a dad.” William’s father has passed away.
The mass sh**ting at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas, roughly 25 miles north of Dallas, resulted in the de@ths of all three over the weekend. Eight people were k!lled in the attack before the heavily armed sh**ter was k!lled, and William was hurt. A national outpouring of mourning for the couple’s and their youngest son’s de@ths has come from their church’s neighborhood near Dallas, where they lived.
By Tuesday afternoon, William’s GoFundMe page had approximately $1.5 million in donations. Cindy Cho, Cho’s wife, earned her dental degree in 2013 from the University of Texas Health San Antonio School of Dentistry. In Richardson, Texas, she was employed by Thrive Dental and Orthodontics. She was 35 years old.
“Our whole team loved her very much, and we are absolutely heartbroken,” the company said in a Facebook post that also described her as “the sweetest, most beautiful soul with the kindest heart.” “She was an outstanding dentist, mother, wife, daughter, friend, and faithful woman of God,” the company said.
Report to NBC News, Cho received a political science degree from UMass-Amherst in 2007. After graduating from Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida, he continued his education in law. Cho, 37, was employed at Richardson’s Porter Legal Group at the time of his passing. The firm claimed that although he represented clients in a variety of legal matters, immigration disputes were what he was most interested in.
“Although Kyu has only been with our firm for a year, it was immediately apparent that he is one of the most thoughtful, caring and considerate people we have ever had the pleasure to know and work alongside,” Porter Legal said on its Facebook page.
Three days after the murder, Cho’s college buddies struggled with a combination of shock and rage. “I might have joined a sorority to feel the friendship of a family, but looking back, I got so much of that with my taekwondo team, and so much of that was because of Kyu,” Lauren Anders Brown wrote in a personal article.
“He was the kind of friend you could not see for 16 years but if you bumped into him on the street you’d pick up right where you left off,” she wrote. “I’ll never know what it’s like to bump into Kyu on the street, because a hateful person and an automatic weapon made that impossible last weekend.”
Close buddy Ray Mak Hon Kit, who also met Kyu in college, recalls Cho acting quickly when he got the flu one day.
“Kyu took me out for dinner telling me that some Korean food would make me feel better,” Hon Kit said. “He then introduced me to a Korean dish called Sundubu Jjigae, which means tofu stew. I recovered the very next day.”
In recent we have had to write an interesting article about the recent sh00ting. You can check below:
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In the days before the sh**ting, Hon Kit was traveling in South Korea and texting Cho. The conversation then ended abruptly.
“I told him I’m in his home country. He told me to have a great time, enjoy myself and have lots of good food,” he said. “I told him I’m in a location pretty far from Seoul central and there’s nothing there. Our conversation ended there.”
Hon Kit’s phone was inundated with messages from old taekwondo teammates who were grieving the loss of their comrade the morning of the incident.
“Truly devastated,” he said. “I cried in the subway.”
Below is a tweet about Cindy Cho, Kyu Cho, and James Cho all being shot and killed in the Allen, Texas mass shooting. You can see below:
This is so incredibly sad.
Cindy Cho, Kyu Cho, and James Cho all were shot and killed in the Allen, Texas mass shooting. 6-year old William Cho is the only surviving family member. He was also shot by Mauricio Garcia on May 6th and is recovering in the ICU.
He lost his entire… pic.twitter.com/zAPJoMIL5L
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 9, 2023
Robert Luckhardt, a different buddy from college, claimed Cho was a born leader who was far more mature than most people his age. Luckhardt also said he had a contagious energy.
“I don’t think I ever saw him not smiling,” Luckhardt added. “He just had this endless positivity, and I always felt like he put other people before himself.”
Cho and Grace Ghang, both 38, attended Ave Maria School of Law together, where they were two of the few Asian students.
“We would talk and joke around in Korean sometimes and there was just that instant connection as soon as we were introduced,” she said.
After graduating, the two continued to communicate. They discussed setting up a playdate for their children as soon as they could when they last spoke in late 2021.
“We concluded our messaging by saying we would love to get together sometime since both of us now live in Texas, and I really was planning on trying to make a trip sometime to Dallas to try and catch up with him,” she said. “But now that opportunity is lost.”
Stay tuned to read more exciting news on our website, kerrvillebreakingnews.com.
