Binghamton Police Chief: 'He Must Have Been a Coward'

Jiverly Voong, the 41-year-old gunman who took 14 lives including his own at an upstate New York immigrant center, was wearing body armor during the attack, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports. Binghamton’s police chief said the armor indicated Voong may have intended to take on police, but he speculated that the sound of sirens spooked him into suicide. “He must have been a coward,” the chief said.

As details of Voong’s emerged, those close to him said they weren’t surprised he turned to violence. People mocked his poor English, they said, making him feel “degraded.” Voong was also investigated by Binghamton police in 1999 for suspicion of plotting a bank heist. He appears to have recently worked in California for a sushi company, where his boss said he was antisocial but a good worker. (More Jiverly Wong stories.)