Ten years ago, a group of immigrants was taking an English class at the American Civic Association in Binghamton when Jiverly Wong entered the building and shot and killed 13 people.
The teacher that day was 72-year-old Roberta King.
"When all of this unraveled, everyone we would run into would say, ‘Oh, no problem. Teacher Bobbie' — they called her Teacher Bobbie — 'she's safe,'” said King’s son, Dr. Jeffrey King. “'Everyone in the basement is OK.' We had no idea that that was not the true fate."
A DECADE OF REFLECTION
King, a mother of 10, wasn't even scheduled to work that tragic day. Her son said she was preparing Passover dinner the night before when she received a phone call, asking her to fill in the following morning.
"Here she was, in the middle of making food for everything, and she said, ‘Oh no. I would be happy to go,’” Jeffrey King said.
Her decision would ultimately lead to her death.
Her husband, Dave Marsland, remembers the heart wrenching phone call he received on April 3, 2009.
"One of my friends just looked at me and said ‘go,’ and I got in the car and I drove like a bat out of Hell on the back roads to get to Binghamton, all the wy down listening to the radio and listening to the worst possible stuff you could possibly hear,” Marsland said.
The 13 victims ranged in age from 26 to 72. Several of them had children who continue to cope with the tragedy.
"There were so many people who were very young. Just horrible. Never truly got to live,” King said. “We have to remember their memory.
