Enlarge Handout photo via Getty Images Jiverly Wong killed 13 people, wounded four other people, and killed himself at the American Civic Association on April 3 in Binghamton, N.Y. BINGHAMTON  Years before he achieved infamy for slaughtering 13 people and killing himself, Jiverly A. Wong was sparking fears among immigration officials, police and his own father. The federal employee who did Wong's criminal background check used the term "sketchy." One Southern Tier police agency thought his pistol permit application merited extra attention. Another believed he'd robbed a bank of almost $10,000. Those are some of the questions Wong raised among authorities who would decide if he would become a citizen, if he could possess a firearm, and later, if he would be charged with the daring daylight holdup of a bank about 40 miles from his Johnson City apartment. But the most chilling flag raised about the Vietnamese immigrant was in a letter from his father to the Broome County sheriff. "I do not want he hold a pistol," Henry Voong wrote. Wong served time in jail and clearly feared police, but he would spend most of his time in America living a life typical of many people in Greater Binghamton, records obtained via the federal Freedom of Information Act show. He held assembly jobs at several local manufacturers. He married. He divorced. He owned guns. On April 3, Wong loaded two semi-automatic pistols and drove a borrowed Toyota to the American Civic Association in Binghamton, barging through the front door during a citizenship class and firing 98 shots. In barely a minute, Wong had ended 13 people's lives, wounded four other people, and killed himself. Except for the April 3 letter in which Wong, printing in block capital letters, expresses vague fears about being followed and harassed by police, his motivation remains unclear. 'Really, I was innocent' Wong was born Linh Phat Voong on Dec. 8, 1967, in Saigon, a son of Duong and Mui Thong Voong. An 80-page file from the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service shows that he attended Han Duc School in Saigon until 1982, then worked as a shoemaker into 1990. Early that year, he sought a visa to come to the United States. A doctor's examination of Voong from 1990 concluded he had no physical or mental disease, defect or disability. That July, Voong was admitted to the United States as a refugee by INS, now known as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). He settled in Johnson City, moved to California in 1991, and returned to JC in December 1992. In 1995, he applied to become a naturalized U.S. citizen — and to change his name to Jiverly Anteras Wong. That raised the first flag. An unidentified INS employee found Wong's explanation for his time in a Los Angeles-area jail "gives only his side of the story, which is sketchy." At issue was Wong's explanation for his 1992 arrest in Huntington Park, Calif. A felony forgery charge, records show, led to a misdemeanor conviction for passing a fictitious check. A note in the file shows that Wong was sentenced to 100 days in jail and three years' probation. He was freed after about a month. "They kept me back to the jail for 30 days to investigate the real criminal," Wong wrote as part of his application for naturalization, under the section that requires applicants to explain arrests and convictions. In printed block capitals, he described cashing "an empty check" received from an unnamed man as payment for a "necklace," followed by a trial in which jurors voted 8-4 in favor of a guilty verdict. "Really," he wrote, "I was innocent." It's unclear what immigration officials did in response to the employee's concern. They granted him citizenship — and a name change. Nor can officials explain another discrepancy on Wong's application. On a form labeled "Refugee," Voong was asked to print his name. "Athi Von" is printed in capital letters." "Our initial research finds no 'Athi Von' in our records," said Bill Wright, spokesman at the Department of Homeland Security. DHS oversees USCIS. In a ceremony at the Broome County Courthouse on Nov. 17, 1995, Jiverly Wong became an American citizen. 'His name is Linh Voong' Less than a year later, Wong decided he needed a permit to carry a pistol. He filed a two-page permit application June 26 with the Broome County Sheriff's Office, listing names and addresses for four character references and answering "no" to questions about mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and dishonorable work and military discharges. He claimed he worked at IBM in Endicott (IBM says it has never employed him). Details on the application are sketchy, but one item stood out enough that another police agency raised questions about it years later. In one of six reference letters to the sheriff in response to Wong's application, the writer declares, "I do not want he hold a pistol." In the letter, the person writes, "Jiverly, he is my son," and "his former name is LINH VOONG." The letter, signed "Henry Voong," does not say why Henry Voong thought his son shouldn't have a gun. The letter was obtained from the USCIS via a Freedom of Information request. Voong and his wife, who moved to the Tier after leaving Vietnam in 1990, have not spoken with Binghamton media. An interview last week in The Post-Standard of Syracuse quoted Henry Voong, 66, apologizing to the community for the shootings, and saying he feared for his son's sanity back in 1990 after Wong told him "they're in front of me and trying to capture me." He said he never saw his son with a handgun, never knew he owned one, and never heard him discuss visiting a gun range. Broome Sheriff David Harder, who in 1996 worked in the section of the department that processed pistol permits, told the Press & Sun-Bulletin on Thursday that he called California regarding Wong's application and found nothing negative. Items like felony convictions disqualify permit applicants. The application was signed by then-Undersheriff David Chase, then forwarded to County Judge Patrick H. Mathews without an indication of whether Chase recommended approval or rejection. Mathews, now retired, granted the permit in June 1997. Five other letters of reference are in the file. The letters — four from people with Johnson City mailing addresses — say Wong was a "responsible person," a "good working partner and team member," and in one case, "he's good." USCIS blocked out the writers' names. There is an indication that the sheriff's department had a concern about the application, because it appears that extra letters of reference were requested. Three of the letters are dated August 1996; Henry Voong's is dated that October. Two others are dated April 1997 — almost 10 months after Wong first applied. Harder on Friday refused to discuss Wong's file, saying his department promises to keep permit applications confidential (by law, applicants' names and addresses are public information). Nor would he discuss the letter from Wong's father. Said Harder: "Who can trust the Department of Homeland Security now? Our position is we're not going to discuss this." He said his department gave Wong's file to the FBI on Thursday. Broome's current regulations say references from relatives won't be accepted. Harder couldn't say if that was the rule when Wong sought a permit. Bank robbery suspect In 1998, the letter from Wong's father got the attention of New York State Police. "We had a confidential informant who claimed Wong was involved in a bank robbery in December 1992," said Lt. Glenn Miner, director of public information for the state police. Media reports show that a masked man with a pistol walked into the County National Bank in Lenox, Pa., at midday. The man, described as being 5-feet-7 — Wong's height — left moments later with a wad of cash. State police records, obtained via FOI, peg the amount at $9,855. As state police investigated, they obtained Wong's pistol- permit file, including the letter from his father. Troopers thought enough of the information that they assembled a file of photos of Wong "to aid in any further investigations." They also checked his history of gun ownership, and found he had sold two handguns — a Beretta and a Sig Sauer — to a West Corners firearms dealer late in 1997. The dealer, Harry McLain, said he'd forgotten about the transaction until he saw Wong's picture after the shootings. Wong, he said, was difficult to understand, but did nothing to draw extra attention in visits to McLain's shop. "It was quite a ways back," McLain said. "He just acted like a regular Joe." Because the robbery was a Pennsylvania case, Miner said, "we turned that information over to the FBI." Wong was never charged. © Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more