UPDATES BELOW: 12:30PM EST: A report says at least four people have been shot at the American Civic Association in Binghamton and several people have been taken hostage.
According to published reports local apartments are being evacuated.
Four people have been removed from the building on stretchers and taken to hospitals. The Binghamton SWAT team is on the scene. Reports are saying there are approximately 41 hostages in the building.
The incident started about 10:30 a.m.
Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan tells a local paper that the gunman has a high-powered rifle.
WBNG Action News reports say a man went into the building and started shooting.
When the shooting started, people inside escaped to the basement in search of safety. More than a dozen people are hiding in a closet, for more than an hour now. Emergency dispatchers are in contact with some people inside by phone. Police have sent some people to Wilson and Lourdes Hospital, and have requested numerous ambulances to the scene.
UPDATE 2:00PM EST: The condition of the victims wasn’t immediately clear. A Binghamton police dispatcher who spoke to The Associated Press wouldn’t confirm a number of people shot or injured.
The FBI is sending hostage negotiators and an evidence response team to assist local police. The Binghamton SWAT team responded. In addition, ATF is monitoring and has offered its support. Federal officials are not confirming any numbers in terms of victims or hostages.
Emergency dispatchers were in contact with some people inside by phone, WBNG-TV reported. The gunman might still be in the building, the newspaper reported.
Four people were removed from the building on stretchers and taken to hospitals, and 10 more ambulances were called, the newspaper reported.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, confirmed that a student from Binghamton University was being treated at the emergency room. Miller said she didn’t know the nature of the injuries.
“We’re on full alert anticipating we’re going to get additional casualties,” Miller said.
The area is a commercial stretch on the west side of the Chenango River.
Police have locked down a nearby high school and advised local business owners to stay inside.
People escaped to the basement of the building and more than a dozen people hid in a closet, WBNG reported.
The American Civic Association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.
It also intervenes with emergencies, including fighting, hunger and homelessness, according to information from the association’s Web site.
UPDATE 2:40PM EST: A gunman entered an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday and went on a shooting rampage, killing as many as 15 people and taking as many as 41 people hostage, before being shot dead himself, according to CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
Two handguns were recovered at the scene, said a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak about details of an ongoing hostage response and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The FBI sent hostage negotiators and an evidence response team to assist local police, reports Orr. In addition the ATF is monitoring the situation and has offered its support.
The gunman barricaded the rear door of the American Civic Association with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon, the official said.
Indications were that the shooter was a young male, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was still in the building, a law enforcement official said.
The wounded ranged in age from 20 to their mid-50s, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical, she said.
Around 1 p.m., Pennie Kerber, 72, told the AP in a phone call from her home across the street that the scene appeared to be settling down.
“The cops are all standing around in the front now. They’re still all over the roof for sure,” she said. “The SWAT shooters that were to the side of the building look like they’re not there any more. It looks like it’s clearing.”
(YWN Desk – YWN-106 / Action News / CBS2)
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Which exit is Binghamton on Route #17? Livingston Manor is Exit #96 I think.
According to several news reports, the police said the gunman then killed himself with a bullet to the head.
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.”
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 door, 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.
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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.
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.”
binghamton is about half way to toronto from lakewood
There are jews living in Binghampton. There is a orthodox shul on riverside ave,that has a small daily minyan. i hope no jews were in that building.