Hostages left a building near the American Civic Association in Binghamton, N.Y., on Friday. More Photos >
As the city of Binghamton, N.Y., grappled with the slaying of 13 people at an immigrant services center on Friday, the city’s police chief on Saturday said it was “not a total shock” that the man went on a rampage before turning the gun on himself.
Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said at a news conference that the suspect, Jiverly Wong, a 41-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, was depressed after recently losing a job and upset about how people treated him over his lack of proficiency in English.
“From the people close to him, and the actions he took, it was not a surprise to them,” Chief Zikuski said. “He felt he was being degraded over his inability to speak English and he was upset about that.”
Mr. Wong had been taking citizenship classes at the American Civic Association until the first week in March, the police chief said. It was clear that Mr. Wong deliberately planned this attack, the police chief said, because he walked into the center wearing body armor, an indication that “at one point he was going to take the police on or at least try to stop us.”
A 911 call from a receptionist who had been shot alerted the police at 10:30 Friday morning, and they were on the scene within minutes. By then, the shooting had stopped, but the police waited outside the center forhours out of concern that the people still inside the building could also be harmed.
Twenty-six people took refuge in a basement storage room, and hours later the police determined it was safe for them to leave. The police chief said Saturday that the four people who were wounded in the shooting were “all expected to survive.”
At the news conference on Saturday, the volunteer president of the American Civic Association, Angela Leach, struggled to read a statement. “Whatever drove this individual to do what he did, I cannot possibly fathom,” she said, adding that the association will be “more dedicated than ever” to help people “realize the dream of American citizenship.”
Mayor Matthew Ryan of Binghamton said that his office had received inquiries about possible victims from people from nine different countries and two consulates. On Saturday, two local hospitals were conducting autopsies on the victims, and the mayor said he hoped to have all of the victims identified by the end of the day.
Trying to provide a motive a possible motive for the rampage, Chief Zikuski said on NBC’s “Today Show” that Mr. Wong had recently lost a job at Shop-Vac, in nearby Union, a plant that manufactured vacuum cleaner parts before closing in November. About 200 jobs were lost when the factory shut.
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