Yesterday, news broke about a shooter who barricaded himself in an immigrant community center in upstate New York and went on a shooting rampage.
Today, Binghamton’s mayor and police chief believe it was a Vietnamese immigrant man who killed 13 people inside the center.
He may have been depressed after recently losing a job and angry that he couldn’t speak English well. On Friday, he block the community center’s back door with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class. It’s believed he later turned the gun on himself.
News of a “hostage situation” broke Friday morning and for hours, what little details came on the wires and news networks were either inaccurate or vague.
Today, we’re learning that he was angry about his language issues and his lack of employment.
Though it is a rare and sensational piece of news, this man’s story is one immigrant’s story. What happened to this man, sparking him to act so violently? What was he hoping to accomplish? Was he mentally ill, and if so, did someone notice and try to get him help? Did he have a family/friend/health network to rely on? While his losing a job and feelings of isolation/alienation in a new country are not reasons to act the way he did, what experiences did he have that other immigrants may be going through?
1 comment
Marc Kuo says:
Apr 5, 2009
How bothersome.. shooting and suicide.. why not just suicide?
It seems like the latest trend in the suicidal community. You see more and more see news reports of the “cool kid” from the blog, pulling off some killing spree before ending his life.
Any depressed dude feeling suicidal, who ever played Counter-strike or Unreal Tournament, thinking about the options to end his life, will nowadays consider to do something like the other dude that went unstoppable. That’s the awful trend. And like any trend is caused by abundant exposure, we are being flooded with new crazy reports like these on the 8 pm news. There should be a law against it. This is much more harmful than Eminem’s Explicit Lyrics.
If you have nothing to lose, why not become famous? Maybe we shouldn’t give them the credit/attention in the media what they are aiming for. Maybe we should give them the message it is not that original anymore. Not that cool. We should give them the message that you will not make it on the news that easily anymore. Try something new, like going for council. Look for help. That should be cool. That should be the new trend. Why not report on people’s succes stories, depressions that refrained from shootings, and now live happy lifes. Make the stories up if you have to. Those people should be getting more attention than those stupid sprayers. Those are the role models, the real heroes.