The two receptionists at the US community center barely had time to react when a gunman stormed in the front door and shot them at close range before firing on a roomful of immigrants taking a citizenship class.
One receptionist survived, playing dead, before crawling under a desk and calling 911.
Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said she stayed on the phone for 90 minutes “feeding us information constantly” despite a serious wound in the abdomen.
PHOTO: AP
“She’s a hero in her own right,” he said.
The attacker massacred 13 people and left four more fighting for their lives at the immigrant center in New York state before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Police said the killings took place at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, 215km northwest of New York City.
The gunman, reportedly of Vietnamese origin, blocked the back door of the center with his car, entered the building and opened fire.
Dozens of people spent four hours cowering in the center’s basement, waiting to be told by police that they were safe to leave.
Zikuski said that there were “14 confirmed dead in the building” and that he had “very good reason to believe that the shooter is among the dead at the scene.”
“We removed safely 37 people. Four people we removed are wounded,” Zikuski told a news conference.
All four were listed in critical condition.
Zikuski said that receptionist who made the emergency call had been shot in the stomach.
Two handguns were recovered at the scene.
The gunman was identified as Jiverly Wong, in his early 40s, who came from Johnson City, near Binghamton, where he lived with his mother. Police have searched his home.
Zikuski said Wong had been “recently terminated from a job. He didn’t speak English very well.”
US President Barack Obama, on a visit to France, said that he was “shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the act of senseless violence.”
Many of those in the center, which helps clients prepare for citizenship tests, were apparently of Vietnamese origin and did not speak good English.
New York state Governor David Paterson said victims were there to pursue “the American dream.”
“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,” he said.
In the basement, English teacher Priscilla Pease called her husband from her cellphone to say that she and a fellow teacher and 24 students were afraid but alive in the furnace room.
The police chief said he had “no idea what the motive is.”
In Pakistan, a militant Taliban leader wanted by the government claimed responsibility for the Binghamton massacre.
“Whatever happened in America yesterday was done by our men,” Baitullah Mehsud told reporters by telephone, but Pakistani security officials dismissed the claim.
Also See: Drone raid kills 13 in Pakistan
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS