Immigration community center target of rampage
A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with hiscar and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking acitizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparentlycommitting suicide, officials said.
Investigatorssaid they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was atleast the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past monthalone.
The gunman — believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant himself — had recently been let go from IBM, said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose congressional district includes Binghamton. But IBM could not immediately confirm that.
Theattack came just after 10 a.m. at the American Civic Association, anorganization that helps immigrants settle in this country. Police Chief Joseph Zikuskisaid the gunman parked his car against the back door, “making surenobody could escape,” then stormed through the front, shooting tworeceptionists, apparently without a word.
The killer then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.
“The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens,” the police chief said.
Onereceptionist was killed, while the other, who was shot in the abdomen,pretended to be dead, then crawled under a desk and called 911, hesaid. Police said they arrived within two minutes. The rest of thosekilled were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.
The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot woundin an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck,authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9 mm and a .45-caliber— as well as a hunting knife, authorities said.
Thirty-sevenpeople in all were rescued from the building, included 26 who hid inthe boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours whilepolice methodically searched the building and tried to determinewhether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding anyhostages, Zikuski said. Those in the basement stayed in contact withpolice by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when theirbatteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.
Atone point, police led a number of men out of the building in plastichandcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer orkillers.
Most of the people brought out couldn’t speak English, the chief said.
Alex Galkin, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, said he was taking English classes when he heard a shot and quickly went to the basement with about 20 other people.
“It was just panic,” Galkin said.
Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old from Kazakhstan, said she was in an English class when she heard a shot and her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room.
“Iheard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence,shooting,” she said. “I heard shooting, very long time, and I wasthinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life wasfinished.”
Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably “the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city.” Noting mass killings in Alabamaand Oakland, Calif., last month, he said: “When are we going to be ableto curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that wecan’t even keep track of the incidents?”
Thecommunity center was holding class “for those who want to becomecitizens of the United States of America, who wanted to be part of the American Dream,and so tragically may have had that hope thwarted today,” the governorsaid. “But there still is an American dream, and all of us who areAmericans will try to heal this very, very deep wound in the city of Binghamton.”
The suspected gunman carried ID with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., but that was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The police chief would not confirm the name of the dead man with theammunition satchel, saying authorities were still trying to establishwith certainty that he was the gunman.
“We have no idea what the motive is,” Zikuski said. He said thesuspected gunman “was no stranger” to the community center, and mayhave gone there to take a class.
A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Henry D. Voongsaid she was Jiverly Voong’s sister but would not give her name. Shesaid her brother had been in the country for 28 years and hadcitizenship.
“The police just called me and said he got shot,” she said.Asked if she was aware that he might have been involved in theshooting, she said: “How? He didn’t have a gun. I think somebodyinvolved, not him. I think he got shot by somebody else.”
“I think there’s a misunderstanding over here because I want to know, too,” she said.
Waiting outside a Catholic Charitiesoffice where counselors were tending to relatives of victims, OmriYigal said his wife, Delores, was taking English lessons when thegunman attacked. He had no word on what happened to her.
“At this point, I know the scale of what happened, but I justhope Delores is OK,” the Filipino immigrant said. “I haven’t got anyinformation. … The only thing I have right now is hope.”
The American Civic Association helps immigrants in theBinghamton area with citizenship, resettlement and familyreunification. The shootings took place in a neighborhood of homes andsmall businesses in downtown Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.
The Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company andthe birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands ofworkers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsizedin recent years.
A string of attacks in the U.S. in the last month left 44 people dead in all.
A gunman killed 10 people and himself in Samson, Ala.; a trafficstop shootout in Oakland, Calif., left four police officers and thegunman dead; an apparent murder-suicide in Santa Clara, Calif.,left six dead; and a gunman went on a rampage at a nursing home Sunday,killing seven elderly residents and a nurse who cared for them.