 4 Chinese killed in NY shooting rampage
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-06 07:46
Four Chinese nationals, all women, were among the 14 people killed on Friday by a lone gunman at an immigration services center in upstate New York, local police have said. The victims' identities were being established and would be released as soon as possible, according to the police, who notified the Chinese Consulate-General in New York of the deaths. The victims, who were from different families and had diverse backgrounds, attended the same class at the American Civic Association (ACA) - a non-governmental agency that provides services for immigrants and refugees - Deputy Consul General Shi Yong said. A Chinese student, who was taking a language course in the ACA building, is among the four wounded in the shooting rampage. He suffered two gunshot wounds - in the right arm and the right leg - and is in hospital but the injuries are not life-threatening, consulate sources said. Education Counsul Liu Junhua said the student arrived in the US at the end of last year and planned to stay for a year. The student, whose name has not been released, was enrolled into Binghamton University's PhD program, Liu said. Fourteen people, including the suspected gunman himself and his wife, were killed in the three-minute shooting rampage in downtown Binghamton, New York, on Friday, according to local authorities. Police sources say 37 people, including the four wounded, survived the massacre. The suspected gunman, identified as Jiverly Wong, a Vietnamese American, entered the one-story ACA building wearing a bulletproof vest and started shooting at the people inside with two handguns, before killing himself, Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski told a press briefing held nearly seven hours after the attack. Wong, who police said had changed his last name to Voong, had been taking English classes at the ACA, until dropping out in March, Zikuski said. US media quoted Wong's friends and relatives as saying that he was born in Vietnam to an ethnic-Chinese family and moved to the country in the early 1990s. "Apparently people were making fun of him. He felt he was being degraded because of his inability to speak English, and he was upset about that," Zikuski said. Wong was also upset about recently losing a job at a vacuum-cleaner plant, the police chief told a briefing on Saturday. Wong had apparently been preparing for a gun battle with police but decided to turn the gun on himself when he heard sirens approaching, Zikuski said. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi phoned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday to express "grave concern" over the incident, a statement by the foreign ministry said. Yang mourned the victims and conveyed sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims and those wounded in the violence, the statement said.
(China Daily 04/06/2009 page1) |
