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 ...
Crime may not be high in MN but in L.A. they don’t call them “mean streets” for nothing. Policemen are reviled and paid poorly compared to the risks they take.
You couldn’r pay me enough to patrol some parts of L.A.
Watching this event unfold on the news, it appeared obvious the responders knew how many victims there were inside before they entered the building. The number 13 was being broadcast early in the event.
Makes me wonder what sort of surveillance they had on the building.
FGS = for God's sake?
Yes, FGS.....for God’s sake
“How in Hades did the guy get that?! “
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in NY, a pistol license is something you need to get in order to just purchase a pistol. It is NOT a concealed carry license.
More likely, it will be used as an excuse to continue to trample the Second Amendment by New York State. If I want a handgun permit in my county, I need to file a large amount of expensive paperwork, including an affidavit from two of my neighbors.
Wonder how liberals would react if we wanted to base the right to vote on getting permission from a couple of your fellow residents?
“WTF do we spend all this money on SWAT teams?”
SWAT teams are for kicking in old ladies door in the middle of the night to confiscate 1/2 oz. bags of pot, or if they can’t find it, then to plant said 1/2 oz. bag of pot and then “discover” it. THAT is THEIR job.
Now, if you want someone to come in and rescue you from mortal danger, you need an armed citizen or the military.
Yep, all the receptionist really did was provide entertainment while the Dunkin' Donuts were arriving.
That’s right, they want to register every pistol here in NYS. Street crime in the city makes for bad laws in the rest of the state.
Rotation in the squad is regular. In a department of, say 300, it would not be uncommon to have several dozen cops working detective, street, whatever, ...on any given shift...who are active or former members of the team.
Bank hostage situations....apprehension of real bad dudes on warrant....stuff like that....time to set up and execute...there's that stuff to do. The team in my department is run by a sergeant....who is a MASTER SERGEANT in the Army Reserve....wounded Viet vet, duty in Iraq in '91....and most recently was busting doors in Fallujah bagging insurgents...during the thick of the conflict...at age 54....getting shot at with bullets and grenades. Nicest, smartest guy you'd care to meet; a professional soldier; a patriot conservative; the best cop I've ever seen at work. He affects all the guys he trains in good ways.
So there's more to SWAT than portrayed on TV. It helps keep a department on top of training.....not wasting time trying to train guys who aren't interested...just the motivated volunteers. And if you're lucky enough to have a great leader like my department had, you know who's running the show when it hits the fan, and you have confidence, absolutely, to follow him to hell if he needs you to. I would. Maybe that's where this department fell flat on its face , and was derelict in its duty....a lousy leader?
That's it to the best of my knowledge.
For what purpose? To understand how these horrible guns could have corrupted this innocent man and coerce him into firing them?
As they say, a fish rots from the head.
We have had a rash of these shootings as of late.
Is their a common "Med" these folks are on, or am I asking to much of a critical thinking question here?
Wow, good post!
YES. Sadly. Who needs cops like THAT? Fire them all.
Checking with someone who has a permit, here is what I have been told about all this. There are two types of licenses in NY (maybe another one too for a work related type). There is a restricted permit (hunting and target shooting) and a concealed carry permit. Both need 3 personal references, address history, at least 21 years of age, a mental health check, picture for the ID, full finger prints and an FBI background check. It takes from 3 to 6 months to process. As I understand a retailer won’t let you touch a pistol or purchase ammo unless you have a license. Each purchase must be approved by a judge before you can get the pistol. It takes about 2 or 3 weeks to get a new or used pistol.
Good thing we have all those regulations to protect us from stuff like this.
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