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WORLD> America
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Vietnamese gunman killed 13 and self in US shooting rampage
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-04 09:56
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."
A second law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two handguns were registered to Jiverly Wong, another name the man used. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly. Initial reports suggested Voong had recently been let go from IBM. But a person at IBM, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said there was no record of a Jiverly Voong ever working at the company. The police chief would not confirm the name of the dead man with the ammunition satchel, saying authorities were still trying to establish with certainty that he was the gunman. "We have no idea what the motive is," Zikuski said. He said the suspected gunman "was no stranger" to the community center, and may have gone there to take a class.
"The police just called me and said he got shot," she said. Asked if she was aware that he might have been involved in the shooting, she said: "How? He didn't have a gun. I think somebody involved, 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. Friday evening, police searched Voong's house and carried out three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags. Waiting outside a Catholic Charities office where counselors were tending to relatives of victims, Omri Yigal said his wife, Delores, was taking English lessons when the gunman attacked. He had no word on what happened to her. He finally left the center feeling sullen shortly before 8 p.m. "They told me they don't have much hope for me," the Filipino immigrant said before going home to wait for a telephone call. The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification. 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 Binghamton area 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. A string of attacks in the US in the last month left 44 people dead in all. A gunman killed 10 people and himself in Samson, Ala.; shootings that began with a traffic stop in Oakland, Calif., left four police officers and the gunman 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. |
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