A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.
Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.
The attack came just after 10 a.m. at the American Civic Association, an organization that helps immigrants settle in this country. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, “making sure nobody could escape,” then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, 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.
One receptionist was killed, while the other, who was shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead, then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said. Police said they arrived within two minutes. The rest of those killed 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 wound in 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-seven people in all were rescued from the building, included 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said.
Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.
'It was just panic'
At one point, police led a number of men out of the building in plastic handcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer or killers.
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.
“I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting,” she said. “I heard shooting, very long time, and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished.”
Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably “the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city.” Noting mass killings in Alabama and Oakland, Calif., last month, he said: “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?”
President Barack Obama, who was traveling in Europe, said he was shocked and saddened by the shooting, which he called an "act of senseless violence." He said he and his wife, Michelle Obama, were praying for the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton, about 140 miles northwest of New York City.
The community center was holding class “for those who want to become citizens 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 governor said. “But there still is an American dream, and all of us who are Americans will try to heal this very, very deep wound in the city of Binghamton.”
Perisphere
Here's today's version of the above story, plus another shoot-em-up that happened today:
Police chief: Binghamton gunman wore body armor
By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The gunman who killed 13 people in a rampage at an immigrant community center and then committed suicide was wearing body armor, indicating he was prepared to do battle with law enforcers, the Binghamton police chief said Saturday.
The gunman, 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, had been taking classes at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants assimilate, until last month, Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said.
Wong parked his car against the back door of the community center, burst through the front doors and shot two receptionists, killing one, and then took most of his victims in a classroom.
The receptionist who survived played dead, then called 911 despite her injuries and stayed on the line while the gunman remained in the building, the police chief said.
"He must have been a coward," Zikuski said, speculating that when he decided to turn the gun on himself when he heard sirens.
"He had a lot of ammunition on him, so thank God before more lives were lost, he decided to do that," Zikuski said.
He earlier called the receptionist, 61-year-old Shirley DeLucia, a "hero in her own right."
Wong had a permit for the two handguns he used, and most of the victims had multiple gunshot wounds, Zikuski said. The body armor indicates that "at one point in his thinking process that he was going to take the police on or at least try to stop us from stopping him."
The gunman's actions were no surprise to Wong's family, the chief said. Wong, who used the alias Jiverly Voong, believed people close to him were making fun of him for his poor English language skills, he said.
Wong was ethnically Chinese but from Vietnam, a friend said Saturday. He was angry about recently losing a job at a Shop-Vac assembly plant, couldn't find other work and complained that his unemployment checks were only $200 a week, said Hue Huynh, a Binghamton grocery store proprietor whose husband worked with Wong years ago.
Wong, who moved to the United States in the early 1990s, had driven a truck in California before recently returning to Binghamton, only to lose a job there, Huynh said.
"He's upset he don't have a job here. He come back and want to work," she said. Her husband tried to cheer him by telling him he was still young and there was plenty of time to find work, but he complained about his "bad luck," she said.
On Friday, Wong barricaded the American Civic Association community center's back door with his car, walked in the front and started shooting with two handguns. Within minutes, a receptionist, a teacher and 11 immigrants taking a citizenship class were dead.
DeLucia feigned death after she was shot and called 911 to get police to the scene within two minutes. Zikuski said the injured receptionist stayed on the phone for 90 minutes, "feeding us information constantly," despite a serious wound to the abdomen.
DeLucia was in critical condition at a hospital Saturday, along with another victim in the same condition and another in serious condition. A fourth victim was in stable condition at another hospital.
Thirty-seven others made it out, including 26 who hid in a basement boiler room while police tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said.
The chief defended the time it took officers to go into the building — an hour to 90 minutes.
"If some crazy lunatic decides to pick up a gun and go someplace and start shooting people, I really don't have the answer how long for us that could prevent anything like that," Zikuski said.
"What I will tell you is that the police did the right thing," he said. "We have procedures and protocols."
Investigators said they had yet to establish a firm motive for the shooting, which was followed Saturday by the killing of three Pittsburgh police officers by a man reportedly fearful about a potential ban on guns.
At least 44 people have died in mass shootings nationwide in the past month. The Binghamton shooting was the nation's deadliest since April 2007, when 32 people and a gunman died at Virginia Tech.
Wong was found dead in an office with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said.
Police found two handguns — a 9 mm and a .45-caliber — and a hunting knife. Both guns are listed on a permit he obtained in 1996 or 1997, Zikuski said.
State police got tips suggesting that Wong may have been planning a bank robbery in 1999, possibly to support a crack-cocaine addiction, Zikuski said. But the robbery never happened, and Zikuski had no other information.
The attack at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants settle in this country, came just after 10 a.m. as people from all over the globe — Latin America, China, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Africa — gathered for English and citizenship lessons in an effort to become a bigger part of their new home.
Abdelhak Ettouri, a Moroccan immigrant who lives in nearby Johnson City, told the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin he found the back door locked when he tried to flee, then ran to hide in the basement as he heard 12 to 14 shots: "Tak-tak-tak-tak."
Hoi Nguyen of Binghamton said his 36-year-old daughter Phuong Nguyen, who survived the massacre, was taking an English class in the basement when the gunfire started.
"She said it sounded like a firecracker and everyone in the class was startled," he said. "Then the teacher locked the door, called the police, then told everyone they couldn't leave the room."
The shootings took place in a neighborhood of homes and small businesses in downtown Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.
The region was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.
And also....
Police official: 3 officers killed in Pa. shooting
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer – 42 mins ago
PITTSBURGH – A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. Friends said he had been upset recently about losing his job and that he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard would only say that at least five officers were wounded, but wouldn't give any other details.
Police planned to release more details at a mid-afternoon news conference Saturday.
The man who fired at the officers was arrested after a several-hour standoff. One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.
The shootings occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.
Police did not immediately release the gunman's identity, but his friends identified him as Richard Poplawski, 23. They described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.
One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon." Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."
Perkovic, a 22-year-old who said he was Poplawski's best friend, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."
Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn't successful. Vire said Poplawski had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.
Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. DiMarco said he didn't know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about losing his job.
The officers were called to the home in the Stanton Heights neighborhood at about 7 a.m., Richard said.
Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he heard about the shooting on his scanner and came to the scene, where he heard "hundreds, just hundreds of shots. And not just once — several times."
Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said he heard rapid gunfire as he was letting his dog out.
He said the neighborhood of well-kept single-family houses and manicured lawns is home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.
"It's just a very quiet neighborhood," Gift said.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960.
MadWelshie
Thanks Peri for that. Its so shocking that people have to go round shooting innocent people
