By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The wounded receptionist who feigned death during the massacre at the American Civic Association in Binghamton told her priest that God gave her the strength to call 911 after being shot in the abdomen.
According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Shirley DeLucia, a 61 year-old grandmother of two, went to work on that fateful Friday morning after attending a 6:30 a.m. Mass in memory of her husband at Saints John and Andrew Church in Binghamton. Within hours of her arrival at the Civic Association, 41 year-old Jiverly Woong entered the building and started shooting.
Mrs. DeLucia was shot in the abdomen. The other receptionist in the room with her was shot and killed.
After feigning death until the coast was clear, Mrs. DeLucia called 911 and spent the next 90 minutes on the phone with police giving them critical information about what was going on inside the Civic Center such as a description of the gunman and how many weapons he had.
“She was real calm, real precise with her answers and didn’t hesitate,” says 911 operator Kenny Holmes.
Binghamton Police Chief Joe Zikuski called her a “hero in her own right.”
But Mrs. DeLucia didn’t feel much like a hero at the time. A priest from her parish, Fr. Christopher Celentano, visited her in the hospital after the incident and she told him it was God who gave her the strength to call 911. She also said she felt His presence during the shooting that left 13 people and the gunman dead.
Her only wish was that she could have saved more lives. “The only thing she could do was play dead,” Fr. Celentano said.
In his homily during Palm Sunday Mass, Fr. Celentano drew parallels between the passion of Jesus Christ and the senseless violence that permeates our society.
“Violence is evil,” he said. “What was inflicted on Jesus was evil. He was there with Shirley when she called 911. We need to pray for hope and God’s grace to get through this struggle.”
None of Mrs. DeLucia’s friends were surprised by her heroic behavior at the Civic Association that morning and say she’s well known for being helpful to friends and neighbors. When her husband died three years ago, she organized a widow’s club even though she was still grieving herself.
“She’s a faith-filled woman,” said Monsignor Michael Meagher, pastor of her parish. “She’s just counting her blessings with the desire that she could have saved more lives, and is aware that the person in the same room didn’t make it. She’s traumatized in that sense.”
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