Gunman kills 12, wounds 4 at center for immigrants
By ANNA GORMAN Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
April 3, 2009, 11:31PM
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Heather Ainsworth AP
Police gather outside the suspect's home.
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BINGHAMPTON, N.Y. -- For immigrants in this chilly Rust Belt city, the doorway to America leads through the friendly building on Front Street. But Friday, the American Civic Association — a place crowded with recent arrivals taking English classes and citizenship exams — became a killing zone.
A gunman had barricaded the back door of the immigration services center with a car, thwarting escape, then entered through the front door. Opening fire, he killed 13 people and seriously wounded four others before apparently committing suicide.
Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman gave no warning. "I don't think there was any conversation," he said.
As he entered the building, the gunman killed one receptionist and shot another in the stomach. She pretended to be dead, hiding under a table and waiting for a chance to call 911 while the gunman moved down the hallway and sought out more victims in a nearby room. There, he opened fire on a group taking a citizenship class.
Police arrived less than 2 minutes after receiving the receptionist's call at 10:31 a.m., Zikuski said. Amid the carnage they found a body believed to be the shooter's along with two hand guns, body armor and ammunition. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"We have no idea what the motive is," Zikuski said, but added the shooter was "no stranger to the civic association."
An anonymous law enforcement source told the Associated Press that the gunman had an identification card that said his name was Jiverly Voong, 42. Authorities searched the gunman's home Friday and confiscated computer hard drives, a brown rifle case and luggage.
Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan, who described Friday as "the most tragic day in Binghamton history," said Voong reportedly had been laid off from his job at IBM nearby. "I believe he was trying to get assistance (at the center) for obtaining employment," Ryan said.
"The word was he lost his job and was pretty distraught. ... If the story checks out, it's obvious that he was very concerned about being unemployed and not dealing with it well."
A Binghamton city spokesman said Jiverly Wong may be the shooter, but that could not be confirmed. An IBM employee said Jiverly Wong was not an IBM employee.
During the shooting, 26 people sought refuge in a boiler room. Afterward, the SWAT team removed 37 people from the building, four of them critically injured. Many were immigrants who spoke little or no English.
As part of the effort to determine who might be a shooter, officers led some people from the building in flex cuffs, but they were ruled out as suspects, authorities said.
Binghamton is a town of about 46,000 people, located at the junction of two rivers some 140 miles northwest of New York City. Ryan described it as "a very proud city," with 30 languages spoken at local schools and a long history of welcoming immigrants.
The city's main street features old, four-story brick buildings typical of the industrial Northeast, with a sprinkling of ethnic restaurants and food marts. The Binghamton area is known as the birthplace of IBM, which has suffered job cuts in recent years.
"We really celebrate all the cultures here," Ryan said. "Because there has always been a strong immigrant population here, I just think it's been somewhat of a natural fit."
New York Gov. David Paterson noted that Friday's violence followed two other mass gunshot slayings in the last month. The first was in Samson, Ala., where a gunman shot 10 people before killing himself, and in Oakland, Calif., where four police officers were killed.
"When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can't even keep track of the incidents?" the governor said.
President Barack Obama issued this statement: "Michelle and I were shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the act of senseless violence in Binghamton, N.Y., today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton. We don't yet know all the facts, but my administration is actively monitoring the situation, and the vice president is in touch with Gov. Paterson and local officials to track developments."
The shooting resonated with groups that work with immigrants around the U.S.
"Everyone who works with the immigrant community is heartbroken," said Judy London, directing attorney of the immigrant rights project at Public Counsel in Los Angeles. "Any time a tragedy happens in a workplace that is similar to yours, it hits close to home," she said.
Ali Noorani -- executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington, D.C. -- said he urged people to resist using the shooting for political purposes in the immigration debate. Any workplace shooting is horrific, he said, but this was even more tragic because it occurred at a place that gives hope to newcomers to the country.
"This is truly an American tragedy in that these were people who were looking to become the newest of our American communities," Noorani said. "So many people come to this country fleeing persecution or violence, and here they were studying to become citizens, only to become victims of violence."
Ryan said that a family center had been set up in Binghamton, where relatives could find out about the victims.
"By process of elimination, families are probably starting to realize they lost a loved one," he said.
The American Civic Association, the mayor said, has been a mainstay of the community. The group assists immigrants and refugees with resettlement, citizenship, family reunification, interpreters and translators. Many of its clients have fled war and conflict in other countries and were working to build new lives in the U.S., according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
The committee, a network of organizations serving immigrants and refugees, said the Binghamton group was one of its partner agencies. It issued a statement saying that it was "shocked and saddened by the shooting" and announcing that it established a fund to help the community.
"Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the Binghamton community," the statement read. "We know the entire community of Binghamton will rally around the American Civic Association, the people it serves and, in particular, the victims and their families."
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