US: Peaceful Binghamton gropes for answers after massacre
04 Apr 2009 5:04 PM
BINGHAMTON, New York AFP - Consternation and unanswered questions were written on the faces of people in this small crisis-stricken northeastern US city on Saturday after an armed man opened fire and killed 13 people at a local immigrant centre.
"How do you explain it? You don't," shrugged Joe Sellepack, a priest, who talked to AFP at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, where a community prayer vigil for the victims of the massacre took place.
The church is barely three blocks from the site of the massacre, and more than one hundred people gathered here for the vigil to say prayers for the dead.
Early on Friday, an armed man identified as Jiverly Wong, of apparently Vietnamese origin, burst into the premises of the American Civic Association, a group the helps immigrants learning English.
The man used his car to block the back door and open fire on those inside the centre, killing 13 and wounding four before taking his own life.
Thirty-seven other people who were at the location at the time of the shooting were not hurt.
The gunman gave no indication of his motives.
Binghamton residents fount it even more difficult to find an explanation to the massacre because for decades the association has been singled out for praise by practically everybody in the city as a highly beneficial community organisation.
"We are all in shock, wondering how something like this could happen," continued pastor Sellepack, adding that the association was like an entrance door, through which many had passed on their way to becoming Americans.
"A lot of our immigrants are from Asia, from Korea or Vietnam, and also from Muslim countries," Sellepack explained. "The majority of people that were hurt in these tragedy were Buddhists and Muslims."
With its Victorian houses, parks and a university, Binghamton projects a comfortable image. However, the city of 50,000 residents located 217km northwest of New York City was unable to escape an economic storm buffeting the whole country.
The pastor complained that many of the local residents have been affected by layoffs at computer giant IBM.
IBM, along with troubles insurance provider American International Group (AIG), aerospace conglomerate Lockheed Martin and the University of Binghamton, are the may employment providers in the city.
Ebony Labiloe, who works at the city medical centre, is also perplexed by the shooting.
"There where classes, those were students," asks Labiloe. "How can you harm anybody just for learning how to speak a language?"
Peter Lu, a 66-year-old immigrant from China, who came to this town decades ago, is equally puzzled.
"This was very helpful for people from other countries," he said of the association. "I don't understand why this happened. My wife learned English there from ABC."
Douglas Setzer, 47, another priest who has lived here all his life, said the massacre may have the same psychological roots as other recent shootings that are becoming routine in the United States.
"There are people here with depression symptoms because of loosing their jobs," he volunteers an explanation. "Some people who don't have the faith they will - as we say in America - freak out and do things they shouldn't do."
But he quickly points out the Friday's tragedy notwithstanding, Binghamton is basically a quiet place with no big problems.
"It is an okay place to raise your children," Setzer notes. "There is a lot of parks, it is a very friendly city."
