Seeking A Better Life, Finding Tragedy

As he lay grievously wounded in a classroom at the American Civic Association, Long Huynh cradled his dead wife and tried to keep his eyes open - to stay awake - telling himself he had to survive for their two children.

Gunshots had shattered his elbow, blown off a finger and slammed into his chest and chin. He bled profusely.

This wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out.

He and his wife, Lan Ho, came to the United States from Vietnam two years ago seeking a better life. They were taking English classes at the civic association Friday when Jiverly Wong, 41, burst into their classroom and opened fire, killing 13 before killing himself.

The tragedy was compounded a dozen times over, with similar tales told by the families of Wong's victims and by those who survived the rampage.

Four Chinese were among those killed, and a Chinese student was also shot in the arm and leg but survived, officials said. The other victims came from Haiti, Pakistan, the Philippines, Iraq, Brazil, Vietnam and the United States.

The first 911 calls came in at 10:30 a.m., Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said at a news conference Sunday. The callers spoke in broken English, and it took dispatchers 2 minutes to sort out what was happening, he said.

Patrol officers arrived at 10:33 a.m., five minutes before a wounded receptionist called police to report a gunman in the building, Zikuski said. Police had earlier said it was that call that brought them to the immigration center.

When police arrived at the scene, the gunfire had stopped, so they believed there was no "active gunman" in the center and waited for the SWAT team to arrive, Zikuski said.

The SWAT team entered the building at 11:13 a.m., 43 minutes after the first call to police.

On Sunday, police defended the 43 minutes it took to enter the building after the first frantic 911 calls from terrified immigrants inside the center. Medical examiners told the district attorney that the injuries were so severe, none of the victims would have survived even if police had entered the building immediately.

Survivors reported huddling for hours in a basement, not knowing whether they were still in danger. Huynh told relatives he remained motionless for more than an hour, fearful the gunman would know he had survived.

"He tried to open his eyes as long as he could because he afraid if he close his eyes, he never wake up again," said his sister, Tina Nguyen.

Another relative, Met Tran, said Huynh threw his arms around his wife in a fruitless effort to shield her from the bullets, yelling "Lay down! Lay down!"

"He tell his wife, 'Let me die so you can live and take care of the kids,'" Nguyen recounted.

The couple have an 11-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter.

Nguyen said her sister-in-law simply wanted to work.

"She just try so hard to learn English so she could go to work and get a better life here," Nguyen said. "But I guess it doesn't seem like a better place here, you know?"

On Sunday, friends and relatives of Lan Ho, 39, returned to the scene and held an impromptu memorial service, burning incense and reading from a Buddhist prayer book.

Profiles Of Shattered Dreams

Marc and Maria Bernard, from Haiti, were the parents of two young children - a boy in middle school and a girl in elementary school - and had been in their apartment in Endicott, New York, for maybe a year, according to neighbors in their complex.

They took classes at the immigrant center in the morning and worked in the afternoon - always back in time to greet their children from school. Maria, 46, worked at McDonald's and Marc, 44, had a manufacturing job before getting laid off several months ago.

"They were the kind of people you want to have in this country," said apartment manager Leroy Jackson. "They worked hard. They talked to everybody."

The Bernards were working to become citizens, he said.

They walked with their children all the time and played ball with them, Jackson said.

Trouble became apparent Friday when no one greeted the children at the apartment. Neighbor Carolyn Strong said an aunt took the children on Friday.

"They were home alone. They were never home alone. The father always met them," Strong said.

Parveen Ali, 26, of Pakistan, came to the United States in 2001 with her mother and two brothers. She worked odd jobs at a gas station and hotel while trying to get her high school equivalency diploma. She eventually wanted to go to college and become a teacher.

She was like a mother to her 24-year-old brother, Nadar Ali.

"It's an extreme pain," he said. He described his sister as "like the base of our family. How can I describe it to you? She played a significant role in our family."

Ali recently gained citizenship, which allowed her to sponsor two younger brothers still in Pakistan to come to the U.S., said Kaniz Fatima, a family friend. Ali hoped for a reunion that would get them safely from the violent border region with Afghanistan.

"All her dreams are buried with her," Fatima said.

Layla Khalil, 57, came to the U.S. with her husband and three children after surviving car bombings near her house in Baghdad, her family said Sunday.

Her children include a son who is doctoral student at Sorbonne University in Paris, a daughter who is a Fulbright Scholar at Binghamton University and a son in high school.

Her husband of 31 years, Samir Khalil, is a linguist who speaks three languages but couldn't find words to describe his pain.

"Feeling cannot be expressed about this situation because something unbelievable happened," he said.

Layla Khalil was a librarian in Iraq and an avid student of English. She loved coming to the immigrant aid center to learn English and about the cultures of other students.

The son in high school, 17-year-old Mustafa Alsalihi, said losing his mother was like losing the love in his life.

"The situation in Iraq is dangerous but we came here on the hope we'd be in a better place out of danger. It's peaceful."

Roberta King, 72, was teaching English to immigrants at the community center when the gunman invaded her class.

Dr. Jeffrey King, one of her 10 children, described his mother as brimming with interests ranging from the opera to the preservation society to her doll collection.

She and her husband, the late Dr. Abraham King, sent all their children to college, five of them to Cornell University in Ithaca.

Her son remembered telling her in a recent conversation to retire and enjoy herself.

"I said, 'Mom you're in your 70s,'" King said. "She said, 'What? You don't think I enjoy working?'"

Dolores Yigal, 53, lived in the Philippines and had been in the U.S. for about a year. She immigrated after marrying Binghamton resident Omri Yigal, who had been her pen pal.

"She dreamed of coming to America, and she had such praise for America and it was her dream," Yigal told CBS News.

Her husband said she loved children, raising her brother's daughter in the Philippines and dreaming of working with children here.

"She was the most happy when I agreed that she could work. She wanted to work very badly," Omri said. Learning English at the center was part of that goal.

He still recalls the first time he visited her in the Philippines. In the picture she had sent him, her hair was curly. But it was straight when they met, and Omri said he was disappointed.

She began wearing it curly again.

Maria Zobniw, 60, came to the U.S. from Ukraine as a child and worked as a part-time caseworker at the immigrant aid center.

"She's Ukrainian, and she knew how difficult it is for people to get adjusted and she knew several languages," her husband, Lubomyr, said Saturday, before her death was confirmed. "She saw it as her mission to help."

Maria Zobniw attended Harpur College (now Binghamton University) and was active teaching children Ukrainian language and traditions.

Her daughter, Zoriana, told CBS Affiliate WBNG that said she wasn't even scheduled to work at the American Civic Association Friday.

"Someone called in because they needed help and she said, 'OK, I will take the time and go there.' And if she had not gone, those 10 minutes, those crucial 10 minutes that she decided to go and help ... she would still be here," she said.

The family did not hear anything from police about her condition in over a day, but then two police officers showed up at their home with the devastating news.

"This entire house was a big scream and that's how we found out," Zoriana told WBNG.

"Within the family, she was able to hold the nucleus of the family together," her husband said. "She was very well read, and having that taken away, it's a great loss."

Almir Olimpio Alves, 43, was a mathematics professor at Pernambuco University in northeastern Brazil and was known for his easygoing manner and popularity with students.

He arrived in the U.S. in September to do post-doctoral work at Binghamton University. He had been taking English classes at the immigrant center where the shooting occurred, his wife told Brazilian media outlets. He had planned on returning to Brazil in July.

Marcia Pereira Lins Alves spoke to Brazilian TV network Globo from her home in Nazare da Mata, a small city northwest of the Pernambuco state capital of Recife.

She said she learned of her husband's death Saturday night, when the wife of a fellow university professor who is also in New York called her.

Gerson Henrique da Silva, who taught alongside Alves in Brazil, said he was beloved by both his students and the people in the community.

"He was a happy person who was always smiling. He talked to everybody in town," Silva told Globo.

Luis Alberto Rodrigues, a fellow math professor, said Alves' death was devastating for the college. "He was a young professor, but his academic qualities were recognized," he said. "We're feeling a huge loss at the university."

Alves had both a master's and a doctorate in mathematics from Pernambuco University.

He is survived by his wife and a 16-year-old son.

Li Guo, 47, of Tianjin, China, was a visiting research scholar from Shenzhen University. She joined Binghamton's Department of Public Administration in June 2008. Her appointment would have ended June 30.