binghamton shooting

10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) Attack type Mass murder, murder-suicide Weapon(s) 9 mm pistol

.45 caliber pistol[2] Deaths 14 (including perpetrator)[2] Injured 4 [3] Perpetrator Jiverly Wong (aka Jiverly Voong)

The Binghamton shootings took place on Friday, April 3, 2009, at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York. At approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT, a Vietnamese immigrant Jiverly Wong (also known as Jiverly Voong)[3][4] entered the facility and shot numerous people inside.[5] Fourteen people were ultimately confirmed dead, including the shooter.[2] Four were wounded.[3] In the incident, 41 were taken hostage by Wong.[6] Four people, aged from twenty to mid-fifties, were treated for gunshot wounds at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City and Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton.[7][8]

The American Civic Association in Binghamton provides citizenship, cultural, and language assistance to the local immigrant community.[9] Contents [hide] 1 The perpetrator 2 The shooting 3 The victims 3.1 Killed 3.2 Wounded 4 References 5 External links //

The perpetrator

The perpetrator was a 42-year-old Vietnamese immigrant Jiverly Wong, a resident of Johnson City.[4][10][11] Wong was born into an ethnic Hoa family in Vietnam.[12] He first came to New York State in the late 1980s, before moving to California, according to police. In 1992, Wong was arrested and convicted of misdemeanor fraud. Wong became an American citizen in November 1995 and sometime after that left the country. He returned to Los Angeles in December 1999.[13] Wong married and later divorced Xiu Ping Jiang while living in California; the couple had no children. [14]

He had lived in Inglewood, California, while working for almost seven years as a delivery man for a catering company called Kikka Sushi in Los Angeles. Wong failed to show up to work one day in July 2007, and the company's next contact with him was when Wong called seeking a copy of his W-2 earnings statement in 2008, asking that it be forwarded to a New York State address.[15]

Although early reports suggested Wong had recently lost his job at a local IBM plant in nearby Endicott, New York,[2] IBM stated they had no records showing Wong had ever worked for the company.[11] A woman identifying herself as his sister stated he had worked for "the vacuum company" (Shop Vac) until it closed down.[11][16]

While the exact reasons for Wong's actions are not known, several sources had suggested possible motivations; such as, Wong's feelings of being "degraded and disrespected" for his poor English language ability, his frustration with losing his job, and his difficulty finding work in New York.[11] Wong had also allegedly made comments such as "America sucks" and talked about assassinating