'Gunman behind New York immigration center massacre was a coward'

New York, Apr 5 (ANI): Binghamton Police has called the gunman who shot 13 people dead at an immigration center a "coward" who planned to fight police, but later changed his mind and committed suicide.

Police Chief Joseph Zikuski identified the shooter as 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, and said he had voluntarily changed his last name to Voong.

"He arrived wearing body armor. At one point in his thinking process, he was going to take on police or at least stop them from stopping him. He must have been a coward. We speculate that when he heard the sirens, he decided to take his own life," the police chief told reporters.

FOX News quoted Zikuski as saying that Wong was depressed about his poor English-speaking skills, which he believed he was being teased about, and his recent unemployment.

People "degraded and disrespected" the gunman over his inability to speak English well, Zikuski said on NBC's "Today" show.

"He was terminated from his job at a place called Shop-Vac, and he was very upset about that also," Zikuski said.

Wong could not find work and complained that his unemployment benefit checks were only 200 dollars a week, said Hue Huynh, a Binghamton grocery store proprietor whose husband worked with him years ago.

Wong had driven a truck in California before recently returning to Binghamton, only to lose a job there, Huynh said. (ANI)