N.Y. shooter fits ‘pseudo-commander’ mold
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Jiverly Wong was upset over losing his job at a vacuum plant, didn’t like people picking on him for his limited English and once angrily told a co-worker, “America sucks.”
It remains unclear exactly why the Vietnamese immigrant strapped on a bulletproof vest, barged in on a citizenship class and killed 13 people and himself, but the police chief says he knows one thing for sure: “He must have been a coward.”
Jiverly Wong had apparently been preparing for a gunbattle with police but changed course and decided to turn the gun on himself when he heard sirens approaching, Chief Joseph Zikuski said Saturday.
“He had a lot of ammunition on him, so thank God before more lives were lost, he decided to do that,” the chief said.
Police and Wong’s acquaintances portrayed him as an angry, troubled man who struggled with drugs and job loss and perhaps blamed his adopted country for his troubles. His rampage “was not a surprise” to those who knew him, Zikuski said.
Wong, who used the alias Jiverly Voong, believed people close to him were making fun of him for his poor English language skills, the chief said. But police said the motive still wasn’t clear.
Until last month, he had been taking classes at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants assimilate.
Then, on Friday, he parked his car against the back door of the association, burst through the front doors and shot two receptionists, killing one, before moving on to a classroom where he claimed 12 more victims, police said.
The police chief said that most of the dead had multiple gunshot wounds. Wong used two handguns for which he had obtained a permit more than a decade ago.
The receptionist who survived, 61-year-old Shirley DeLucia, played dead, then called 911 despite her injuries and stayed on the line while the gunman remained in the building.
DeLucia was in critical condition Saturday. The police chief said she and three other shooting victims were all expected to survive.
Wong’s tactics — including the body armor and copious ammunition — fit him into a category of killers called “pseudo-commandos,” said Park Dietz, a criminologist and forensic psychiatrist at UCLA who analyzed the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in 1999.
Barricading the back doors to trap his prey “was his way of ensuring that he could maximize his kill rate,” Dietz said. “This was all about anger, paranoia, and desperation.”