Some details on the Binghampton shooting

[justashooter 430]

COPY OF AN UNCREDITED ARTICLE FROM ANOTHER BOARD:

The man who gunned down 13 people in Binghamton on Friday was well-known at a Johnson City outdoors shop, where he often purchased or exchanged handguns, according to a store employee.

Jiverly A. Wong, 41, frequently exchanged guns at the store, said Dave Henderson, Gander Mountain's outdoor education series coordinator. Voong would buy a handgun and shoot it for a few weeks before returning it, saying he didn't like the gun.

“He was in there real regular. Everybody knew him,” Henderson said.

Friday morning, Wong is believed to have walked into the American Civic Association on Front Street, killing 13 people and wounding four others before turning the guns on himself. Police found two semi-automatic handguns and a satchel full of ammunition at the scene.

Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said Wong had two handguns registered to him on a gun permit he got in 1996 or 1997. Zikuski said police hadn't yet checked out where Voong bought his guns, but either Binghamton detectives or the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would check into it at some point.

Henderson, whose primary role at the store is to teach and organize seminars, said he worked the gun counter when staffing at the store was low. In the 20 or so times he worked the gun counter in the past six months, Henderson said Wong either bought or exchanged guns five or six times.

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Around Christmas last year, Wong came back to the store the day after purchasing a gun, saying he had changed his mind and wanted to get a new one. He hadn't yet received the first gun, a process that takes about two weeks, Henderson said.

Wong bought a .45-caliber handgun within the past month and a half at Gander Mountain in Johnson City, Henderson said. Henderson writes a column about outdoors issues twice a week for the Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Wong also frequently grew agitated when store employees couldn't understand his English, Henderson said. A couple times, Henderson had to pass Voong off to another store employee because Wong would get annoyed.

“He would get frustrated,” Henderson said in a telephone interview from Madison, Wis., where he was attending a gun show. “There was times I wouldn't even talk to him anymore.”

Friends and family have told police Voong often felt humiliated and picked on because he didn't speak English well. He was taking English classes at the American Civic Association until dropping out in the first week of March, Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said.

“I always thought he gave me the impression that he was just frustrated being in the position where he couldn't be understood all the time,” Henderson said. “He would get frustrated and he would get angry about it.”

Henderson said he remembered Voong because of his distinctive first name and his regular appearances at the store.

During one visit, Wong told Henderson that he had changed his name to Wong because “Americans can't pronounce my real name.” Henderson had asked Wong's nationality.

Police have said that Voong at some point changed his name.

Upon landing in Wisconsin on Friday night, Henderson saw news reports about the massacre in Binghamton. When Wong's name was released, he recognized the first name instantly, he said, but the last name was slightly different than Wong's driver's license and gun permit.

He said he called the manager of the store, who checked the records and confirmed Wong bought guns at Gander Mountain.

[justashooter 430]

THIS GUY ALSO HAD A HISTORY OF DRUG USE AND HAD PLANNED TO ROB A BANK, ETC. THE FIRGERY MISDEMEANOR IS NOT A DISQUALIFIER IN REGARD TO FIREARMS OWNERSHIP.

Other news details surface Sunday about shooter

By John Hill and Nancy Dooling • johnhill@gannett.com • Staff Writer • April 5, 2009

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BINGHAMTON -- The man who gunned down 13 people on Friday at the American Civic Association had recently been making weekly visits to a local firing range, Binghamton police Chief Joseph Zikuski said Sunday.

The chief did not name the firing range.

Meanwhile, two of the vicitms were buried Sunday after a funeral service at the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier in Johnson City. The bodies of Parveen Ali, 26, and Layla Khalil, 57, rested not in caskets but in crimson shrouds on metal gurneys. In keeping with Muslim custom, burial at the Islamic cemetery in the Town of Union took place immediately after the service Sunday.

A portrait of the shooter, Jiverly A. Wong, as a troubled, broken-down immigrant emerged through details released by police and revealed by family.

Police said Wong opened fire on a classroom at the American Civic Association Friday, killing 13 people before taking his own life.

Other new details about the American Civic Association shooter emerged at a press conference on Sunday, including:

The 41-year-old Wong, whose surname was originally Voong, immigrated to the Broome County area in the late 1980s as a young adult.

He moved to Inglewood, Calif., where he was arrested in 1992 for forgery involving a bad check and convicted of a misdemeanor, Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said. While in California, he married and later was divorced from his wife while working as a deliveryman.

Records in Los Angeles County, Calif., where Wong previously worked, show that he apparently was married and then divorced in 2006. According to the records, a man named Jiverly Antares Wong — the same name as the gunman — divorced in July 2006 from his wife, Xiu Ping Jiang. His wife sought the divorce in July 2005, records show.

Wong, from Vietnam, became a naturalized citizen in 1995.

The last time he used his passport was Dec. 25, 1999, when he flew from Norita, Tokyo, to Los Angeles.

In July 2007, he failed to show up for work. Rumors about Wong being involved in a bank heist apparently grew out of his history of passing bad checks. He left California and returned to Broome County.

He was granted a New York driver’s license on Aug. 29, 2007.

Doctors at two local hospitals on Saturday began the painstaking process of identifying victims, through autopsies and consultations with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Except for Wong, police did not release the names of those killed, pending notification of all families involved.

Zikuski said, despite the "psychological autopsy" planned by the Broome County District Attorney's Office, the community may never know what drove Wong to slaughter 13 innocent people.

What's known is this: Wong, 41, was a distraught man with an affinity for guns. Family and friends told police they weren't entirely surprised by his actions.

In 1999, New York State Police learned Wong was planning a bank robbery to support a drug habit, Zikuski said. He was never charged.

After losing his job when the local Shop-Vac plant closed in November, Wong had grown upset. He was frequently frustrated by people who couldn't understand his clumsy English.

At some point, Wong changed his name from Linh Voong - because "Americans can't pronounce my real name," he told a store employee at Gander Mountain, Dave Henderson.

Wong lived just outside of Johnson City in Union with his parents and sister. He was unmarried. The family has not spoken publicly about the incident, and a note taped to the front door of the Voong home states, "no press please."

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090...EWS01/904050381