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4.08.2009

jiverly wong's final letter

Some more information on Jiverly Wong, the Binghamton gunman... Basically, he sounds like he was a pretty disturbed individual. Before going on his shooting spree, Wong sent a letter to a Syracuse television station, postmarked on Friday, blaming the police for his troubles: Police Had Few Contacts With Killer.

In the two-page letter, written in choppy English, he identifies himself as "Jiverly Wong shooting the people," and outlines a series of outlandish complaints about his encounters with the police in New York and California during the 1990s.

He blamed the cops in California for controlling his television and fan and for "connect the music into my ear." He also accused the police of breaking into his home numerous times in the 1990s, stealing $20 from him and trying to force him into car accidents on the highway.

The thing is, according to local police, it only had two interactions with Wong, both more than a decade ago. In August 1998, Wong walked into the Johnson City police department's headquarters to say he suspected someone had tried to break into his apartment through a window.

Two days later, a uniformed officer pulled over Wong in his car. He was issued a traffic ticket for an uninspected vehicle. Wong paid a $20 court charge, and the fine was waived. Both appear to have nothing to do with anything Wong indicated in his letter, which he ended with "Cop bring about this shooting. Cop must be responsible. And you have a nice day."

I know that in the coming weeks and months, people will continue to try to make sense of why Jiverly Wong did what he did. But the more information that comes out, it all seems to make less and less sense...