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Jiverly Voong, a 41-year-old Vietnamese-American, barricaded the doors of Binghamton's American Civic Association with a car before he killed 13 others, wounded four more critically and then ended his own life. Police had arrived on the scene within two minutes of the 10:30 am attack, ABC's Dan Harris reported, as a woman who was shot in the reception area "survived by pretending to be dead and called 911." Police did not identify Voong's body and declare the incident over until 3:00 pm. "The gunman held some 37 hostages," NBC's Ron Allen reported, "some hiding in a closet, others downstairs in the boiler room." On CBS, Bob Orr had a contradictory report: "He went to a classroom; calmly shot everyone he saw before turning the gun on himself and shooting himself; there was never any hostage standoff."
The American Civic Association, founded in 1939, offers support for immigrants. "English language services, citizenship classes, psychological and social counseling for people who are trying to understand a new country and a new culture," was how NBC's Rehema Ellis put it. ABC's Stephanie Sy reported that Binghamton is proud of its cultural diversity. "Immigrants from all over the world have made a home here--Vietnamese, Bosnians, Iraqis--many seeking refuge from wartorn countries." Voong himself became a naturalized citizen nearly 30 years ago, NBC's Pete Williams told us. CBS' Jeff Glor reported that those Voong killed were in the process of taking the immigration citizenship exam. As ABC's Harris put it: "They came to this country to start a new life and they ended up dying in what has become a signature American disaster, a shooting rampage."
ABC's substitute anchor Diane Sawyer cited the statistic that 50 "multiple shootings" have killed 200 people nationwide in the two years since the massacre on the campus at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead. Since then, the Binghamton shooting (14 min on 14 dead) was the fifth of those 50 to qualify as Story of the Day on the network newscasts. The others were last month's McLendon family carnage in Alabama (10 min on 11 dead) and shootings at Northern Illinois University (18 min on 6 dead), a city council meeting in Kirkwood Mo (6 min on 6 dead) and during Christmas shopping at an Omaha department store (15 min on 9 dead). "There is not a lot of sense of urgency on gun control," ABC's Pierre Thomas reported from the Justice Department, contrasting those 50 shootings with 250m guns in circulation nationwide. The killer Voong, CBS' Orr noted, "did own two legally registered guns but we still do not know yet if those are the same guns used in the spree."
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