Posted on 04/03/2009 11:21:36 PM PDT by neverdem
A gunman invaded an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., during citizenship classes on Friday and shot 13 people to death and critically wounded 4 others before killing himself in a paroxysm of violence that turned a quiet civic setting into scenes of carnage and chaos.
The killing began around 10:30 a.m. and was over in minutes, witnesses said, but the ordeal lasted up to three hours for those trapped inside the American Civic Association as heavily armed police officers, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers threw up a cordon of firepower outside and waited in a silence of uncertainty.
Finally, officers who had not fired a shot closed in and found a sprawl of bodies in a classroom, 37 terrified survivors cowering in closets and a boiler room and, in an office, the dead gunman, identified as Jiverly Wong, 42, a Vietnamese immigrant who lived in nearby Johnson City.
Two pistols and a satchel of ammunition were found with the body. In what the police...
--snip--
Little was known about the assailant Friday night. Cautious officials declined to name the gunman, but there appeared to be little doubt about his identity. The name Jiverly Wong was provided by a law enforcement official who declined to be named because he was not authorized to release information.
But the official said Mr. Wong had a New York State pistol license that listed two handguns, apparently the weapons he used at the immigration services center: a .45-caliber Beretta and a 9-millimeter Beretta. The authorities matched the serial numbers of the two weapons found with the gunman’s body to the serial numbers on the pistol license. Officials said they were trying to trace the histories of the guns. Other public records indicated that Mr. Wong had also lived in California in recent years...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Its the civilian who has to be prepare and ready to respond.
If the killing was really “over in minutes” I’m not sure how much blame there is.
I'm not worried about Congress. Blue/Yellow dogs won't bite. Nancy said as much. Harry is up for reelection in 2010.
Exactly. If there had been a couple of handguns in desk drawers the mortality rate might have been cut in half, or less.
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
Call 911 and die.
Columbine again. How tragic for the wounded.
Firemen...well, yeah. Do you know what firemen call police?
Blue canaries.
If the cops don't start dying, it's safe for the firemen.
You need a plan, and you need coordination. If individual firefighters go in half-cocked, they risk not just their own lives but the lives of the people who now have to go in and rescue them.
Marked to read
It was the 'shooting' that was over in minutes.
>>It was the ‘shooting’ that was over in minutes.<<
I see what you mean - the story phrasing was awkward
We don’t know how long it took for people to die. And Did the cops really just wait three hours?!
>>The killing began around 10:30 a.m. and was over in minutes, witnesses said, but the ordeal lasted up to three hours for those trapped inside the American Civic Association as heavily armed police officers, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers threw up a cordon of firepower outside and waited in a silence of uncertainty.
Finally, officers who had not fired a shot closed in and found a sprawl of bodies in a classroom, 37 terrified survivors cowering in closets and a boiler room and, in an office, the dead gunman, identified as Jiverly Wong, 42, a Vietnamese immigrant who lived in nearby Johnson City. <<
I do agree that it seems that what you describe is an oft repeated scenario, but there are of course those exceptions.
I'm thinking of the cop who was alone when he answered the 911 call last week about the shooter in the nursing home. He went in and had a gun battle with the guy in a hallway. Though wounded three time in the leg, he managed to kill the suspect with a single shot to the chest. Not too many of his type around, I guess. It's unfortunate, but true.
No but the CNN newsie made sure to say “semiAUTOMATIC”[emphasis hers] over and over.
Here comes the chest beating and bleating babble of false “outrage”.
I don't know where you live but LE around here are not only paid very well, extremely high when all the "overtime" is figured in, which seems a natural consequence of their 4 day workweek, but they have the most generous retirement of any public worker, almost double what most public employees receive. Individual police officers have immunity from civil lawsuits, except intentional torts, for activity while on duty.
Shhhhh, the media hasn't realized their mistake yet... in that the "hunting" rifle is now an "assault" rifle...
My daughter and I watched a movie last night about the space program. I pointed out that when people are hired for ability instead of looks, and when they are given rein to do their jobs instead of second-guessed, amazing things could happen.
Unfortunately, that is about 50 years behind us. If we tried the same thing now, a very diverse workforce would fail to get us to the moon, but would feel good about themselves while failing.
Wyatt Earp died a long time ago. His descendants are union.
Yes. The idea that responding officers wait is intolerable. In the military you are supposed to run to the sound of the guns.
A short wait for reinforcements and coordination is in order but waiting for that length of time is just cowardly.
How in Hades did the guy get that?!
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