Ayal Tirosh, a senior philosophy, politics and law major at Binghamton University, was sleeping in his room at 92 Front St. on Friday, when 41-year-old Jiverly Wong stormed into the American Civic Association in Binghamton, N.Y. and killed 13 people.

His house was less than a block away.

Tirosh awoke to texts messages and missed phone calls from people asking if he was all right.

“I had no idea what was going on,” Tirosh said. “I looked outside my window and there were a lot of cops, the SWAT team, lots of people with big rifles.”

For Jason Castaneda, a junior geography major who also lives at 92 Front St., the whole situation was crazy.

Castaneda was at work when the shooting occurred, and returned home to hear sirens.

“At first we didn’t think anything of it, there’s always cops and sirens in the morning and at night,” he said. “At the time we didn’t know how dangerous it was.”

When he and his housemates saw people come out of the building, cops and news vans rushing to the scene and the FBI pulling up, however, they realized it was something different.

He and his housemates stopped what they were doing, Castaneda said, and sat watching the news.

“We were just like, wow, how is this happening. This is right down the street from us,” he said. “We couldn’t believe that this happened.”

Once everything calmed down and it was reported that the situation was under control and taken care of, Castaneda said, people began to finish packing and getting ready to leave for spring break. He stayed until the next day, and saw news vans parked outside throughout the night.

Reporters from CNN, FOX, MSNBC and more were at the scene, he said.

Tirosh and Castaneda’s house is across the intersection from the American Civic Association, which is located at 131 Front St.

In a B-Line sent out today, President Lois DeFleur said three members of the Binghamton University community died in the tragedy: Almir Alves and Li Guo, both research scholars; and Layla Khalil, the mother of a recent graduate. A visiting scholar to BU and the spouse of a graduate student were also injured in the shooting, and are in local hospitals.

“This tragedy strikes at our campus community on a personal — and global — level,” DeFleur said in the B-Line. “As an international institution that attracts students and scholars from around the world, it is particularly devastating.”

Students staying on campus over break who need help or support were urged to speak with the on-duty residence hall staff. The non-emergency number for the University Police, (607) 777-2393, is also available.

The city of Binghamton will hold an inter-faith memorial service today, at 6 p.m., at West Middle School.

A Student Association-sponsored candlelight vigil will also be held on Tuesday, April 17, between the Glenn G. Bartle Library fountain and the New University Union. It will take place from 7 to 8 p.m.

– Caitlin Sweeny contributed to this report