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
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary