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Photo Captions:

Killer House - Wong's home, located at 9 Talyor Street in Johnson City, had chinese decorations hung above the cluttered items. (Photos contributed by Duc Tran, Vietnamese freelance writer for the BBC)

Killer House2 - Wong's home, which is the second home on the right behind the sign, had the number 9 placed above an 11 to make it a 911 home, according to Duc Tran, Vietnamese freelance writer for the BBC.

Profile of a Killer

By Wendy Post

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- It has been a little over three days since 42-year old Jiverly Wong went to an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y. where he barricaded a rear door, and then entered the front and commenced a shooting rampage that left 13 dead and four wounded before he turned the gun on himself.

Although the tragedy has ended at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, there is one large question left in everyone's mind, why did he do it.

According to Duc Tran, a Vietnamese freelance writer for the BBC in Asia, Wong was a Chinese ethnic born in Vietnam in 1966 as Huynh Linh Phat.

"For some reason, he adopted the Hong Kong style last name and got lost, it was sad," said Tran about Phat converting his name to Wong, or even Voong for what he described as pronunciation reasons.

Tran also noted that at the time Wong would have been 12 years old, communists took over in Vietnam and it was very different. "They didn't receive the fundamental education needed to bridge to another culture," said Tran. "This would eventually pose a grave problem for him."

Wong came to the United States in the late 1980s and lived in Binghamton before moving to California in the early 1990s, police said. He returned to Binghamton in July 2007, Zikuski said.

Wong became a U.S. citizen in 1995 and married and divorced while living in California, where he had been convicted on a misdemeanor charge of writing bad checks, according to Zikuski.

Police also found at the center two semi-automatic handguns, a .45-caliber and a 9 mm, licensed to Wong. Wong was wearing body armor during the shooting.

But what exactly led Wong to go on a bloody rampage during the morning hours of April 3, 2009. And why did he carry out this massacre at the same center that was trying to assist him in learning English, a language he was struggling with according to Fred Trczinski, the former director of the American Civic Association.

According to Trczinski, who served at the center for eight years and is now serving as the United Way Director in Tioga County, Wong was no stranger to the center, and was taking English classes just a few weeks prior to the shooting massacre.

"Other students were probably teasing him at the center because he was not grasping English," said Trczinski. "It's no different than the way younger students tease each other in high school."

"Some of his fellow students recognized he was having problems, and that's probably why he chose the center for his shooting spree," he added.

Trczinski stated that he knew him during the time he managed the center, but he didn't do anything significant at that time to stand out any different from anyone else.

He did note, however, that in his dealings with immigrants of Asian descent, he noticed that pride was a big deal. "If you injure that pride, some take it seriously."

He was also unsure about Wong's citizenship, and didn't think, at that time, that he had it. "Usually you have to have a good command of the English language to get your citizenship."

But a psychiatrist named Barry Schecter who has a practice in Owego, N.Y., and teaches students at Cortland College, thinks that Wong's motive may have been other than his struggles with language, and feels that the loss of his job was probably the big factor.

"I think it was about his pride," said Schecter. He recalled an Asian student he had several years back that was pursuing her PhD and was not able to grasp it.

According to Schecter, she came to him and told him that she could never go home and tell her father that she could not get the degree. So she tried different programs, but was failing at all of them. The girl eventually left the college and is working random jobs in the area.

Because of this level of pride, Schecter feels that Wong may have struggled in the same fashion. "He [Wong] probably couldn't stand telling people that he wasn't successful here, and that is why he exploded and then killed himself."

When asked why he would wear body armor into the scene if he were going to kill himself, Schecter felt that Wong probably wanted to be in control. "He didn't want someone else to end it before he was finished," said Schecter.

As far as the psychological mindset of the community following this heinous crime, Schecter also feels it may provoke some empathy. "I think some people will have fears, but I think most will gain a better understanding of how vulnerable some of these people are, and that they need our help," said Schechter of the immigrants who are trying to learn English or gain citizenship.

As far as Wong's actions - because he has been described by those who knew him as quiet, Schecter associated this with maybe anxiety and social phobia.

Schecter further described people that are as quiet as Wong as being unable to express emotion, and just being blown up to the extent that they explode, as he did on April 3.

"I don't think his target of the center was because he was blaming them for anything," said Schecter, "I think he was just overwhelmed and never talked to anyone."

Duc Tran, on the other hand, did great research into Wong's background and stated that he could only speak, but not write Chinese.

When Tran visited Wong's home on Saturday at 9 Taylor St. in Johnson City, he noticed on the home that someone had displayed the number 9 over an 11 to make it a 911 house. This disturbed Tran.

Tran was also able to trace Wong's roots back to his real Vietnamese name of Huynh Linh Phat. He also noted that in Vietnam, when you change your name, it is disrespectful.

"You can change your first name, but if you change the last name it shows that you have rebelled against your people," Tran added.

"He was failing here and lost his job," Tran said, "but he could not go home."

With an inability to communicate due to the language barrier and fear, as described by Schecter; and then combined with a loss of his job and the name change that disrespected his people in Vietnam, Wong's tormented life ended at a tragic level that reflected the torment he was experiencing alone; unable to communicate.