This is a horrible tragedy 🙁 :
Via Press Connects:
At least twelve people are dead after a gunman went on a shooting spree inside the American Civic Center in Binghamton, according to preliminary information from state police.
A federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press the shooter has been found dead in the building.
The law enforcement official said the gunman entered the building through the front while firing. He had already blocked the back door with his car.
At one point more than 40 hostages were being held in the building at 131 Front Street — 15 in a closet and 26 in the boiler room. At 2:40 p.m., Binghamton Police indicated the situation was over and that a SWAT team was making sure there were no people inside the building.
At 3 p.m., Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said no one taken from the building is a suspect, including two men who were removed in plastic handcuffs. A report of a man fleeing the building was false, Zikuski said.
The building is currently secure, although the dead remain within it, Zikuski said. He would not say where in the building the bodies were located.
Sharpshooters from the Binghamton SWAT team were poised outside the building during the crisis, and the Endicott police bomb squad was also at the scene.
Scanner reports just before 1:30 p.m., indicate police were asking 26 people in the Civic Association to lie on the floor with the hands above their heads.
Police and ambulance crews began staging at Oak and Main Street, the site of the Binghamton High School, shortly after 10:30 a.m. today. Local apartments were evacuated and businesses, including a nearby nursing home, were placed under lockdown. The high school was also locked down.
I am writing about this to appeal to all political bloggers on all sides of the aisle. Please, let’s keep politics out of this, for the time being. This is not the time to engage in political dogmatic nonsense. This is a time of mourning for the families and the people in this area. I don’t think that it would be out of place to offer up a prayer for the familes involved in this horrific tragic event.
My personal prayers go out to all families of the victims. My God be with them all.