| Not good.
Report: 4 shot, hostages taken in Binghamton, NY
At least four people have been shot and several people taken hostage at an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y.
Mayor Matthew Ryan tells The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin on Friday that the gunman has a high-powered rifle.
The newspaper reports there are 41 hostages in the building of the American Civic Association. It says apartments are being evacuated.
Four people have been taken from the building on stretchers and moved to hospitals. The Binghamton SWAT team is on the scene.
The incident started about 10:30 a.m.
Shooting In Binghamton
Binghamton Police have surrounded 131 Front Street, the American Civic Association. Action News crews on the scene say they saw people being carried out of the building. Scanner reports say there are 41 people inside the building, with as many as 4 people shot.
Scanner 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 ambulances to the scene.
UPDATE: Some hostages released.
According to police reports, about 40 hostages were in the building -- 15 in a closet and 26 in the boiler room.
Shortly after noon, about 10 people were released from the building, with hands on their heads. The police searched some of them.
Around 12:40 p.m., another 10 were released from the rear of the building, clad in white sheets. They were shaken and hugged each other as they boarded a BC Transit bus.
"A number of people are dead"
A gunman with a high-powered rifle shot at least four people and took dozens more hostage Friday inside an upstate immigration services center, authorities said.
"A number of people are dead," Binghamton Police Capt. Alex Minor told the Daily News from the scene of the shooting.
I'm hearing that a radio station in Binghamton, WNBF, is reporting that 13 people have been killed, but I haven't seen any confirmation of that. So hope that they are wrong bout that. |
