Pat Dollard

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New York Times:

Twelve or 13 people were killed when a gunman opened fire in an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y., Gov. David A. Paterson said Friday.

According to several news reports, the police said the 42-year-old gunman then killed himself with a bullet to the head.

“While the situation is still developing and details are being gathered, we do know that a gunman entered the American Civic Association in Binghamton this morning and that there are fatalities,” Governor Paterson said in a statement Friday afternoon. “We are monitoring the situation, and I have directed the State Police to assist the Binghamton Police Department in any way they can.”

The gunman, described as an Asian male, had a high-powered rifle, Mayor Matthew Ryan of Binghamton told The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. NBC News quoted law enforcement sources saying that several weapons were recovered from the scene.

Three people with gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in nearby Johnson City, according to Christina Boyd, a hospital spokeswoman. They are a woman in her 20s and another in her 50s, and a man of undetermined age, she said; one was in critical condition, one serious and the third stable.

“We’ve been told that all of the fatalities are still at the scene because of the investigation,” Ms. Boyd said. “We’re hearing they will release the bodies soon.”

Another person was being treated at Our Lady of Lourdes in Binghamton, a hospital spokeswoman there said.

The Associated Press quoted a local official as saying that the gunman barricaded the rear door of the one-story association building in downtown Binghamton with his car before entering through the front glass door — past a 10-foot-tall model of the Statue of Liberty and the flags of many nations — firing his weapon.

The newspaper’s web site quoted the police there as saying that about 40 hostages were initially in the building. Shortly after noon, about 10 people were released from the building, the reports said, and about 40 minutes later another 10 were released. Others took cover wherever they could.

“Some people hide in closets, some people under table — everywhere you can hide,” said Than Huynh, 45, a high school teacher from Vietnam who translated for some of the Vietnamese survivors when they were interviewed by the police after they fled.

There was no screaming, he said. “They told me they tried to be quiet and run away.”

The Binghamton Police Department declined to provide details of the shootings, but witnesses said that officers and members of local S.W.A.T. teams could be seen during the day in positions surrounding the building, which is situated on Front Street, a mixed commercial and residential strip on the west bank of the Chenango River, near the center of the city.

Binghamton High School, around the corner from the scene of the shootings, was locked down until late afternoon, and nearby apartment buildings were evacuated.

The association describes itself on its Web site an organization that aids immigrants and refugees.

In New York on Friday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was to speak to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network when he learned of the incident. As he told the audience about the shooting before his speech, an audible gasp could be heard. “We’ve got to figure out a way to deal with this terrible, terrible violence,” Mr. Biden said.

Mayor Matthew Ryan of Binghamton scheduled a news conference at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time to brief reporters about the situation.

Pennie Kerber, 72, who lives in a renovated former firehouse across the street from the civic association, said that as of 3 p.m., there were only about 12 law enforcement officers left at the scene. But earlier, Ms. Kerber said, she could see from her front upstairs window hordes of S.W.A.T. officers, F.B.I. officials, and probably “every policeman on our force” surrounding the civic association building.

Maryam Weisser, a vice president of the civic association, said in a telephone interview that she was not sure how many people were killed, though she knew that the group’s secretary and a case worker were in the building and that classes in English as a second language were going on at the time of the shooting.

“This is the friendliest, nicest place to be,” Ms. Weisser, a volunteer from Vestal, N.Y., said. “This is a community where we help with any immigrant issue, with citizenship and translation.”

As Beth Putrinmo, 50, who has been on the board of the center for six years, “I don’t understand how a violent thing could happen here unless it has to do with this person not getting citizenship or something.

“I don’t know why anyone would be so angry,” she said. “We’re always helping people. It’s just a great place to be. We have all kinds of people that come there. Laotian, Vietnamese, Yugoslavia — everybody.”

Last month, a gunman in Samson, Ala., shot and killed 10 people and wounded 6 others — including several members of his family — before turning the gun on himself.