Two TV journalists in Virginia were killed Wednesday morning when a gunman shot them during a live interview in the middle of a morning broadcast. The shooter claimed he was the victim of racial discrimination and was pushed over the edge.
WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were on assignment in Roanoke, Va., when Vester Lee Flanagan approached them and opened fire during the live broadcast, killing both of them.
A woman who was being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, was injured and taken to a hospital, where she underwent surgery for non-life-threatening injuries.
Flanagan fled the scene and was on the loose before police tracked him down with a license plate reader on Interstate 44. When confronted by officers, he sped off and crashed. As officers surrounded the vehicle, they discovered that Flanagan had shot himself. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Footage of the shooting from Flanagan’s point of view was posted to his Twitter account, along with posts to Facebook about the shooting. His posts were quickly taken down by both social media sites.
“We do not know the motive,” WDBJ General Manager Jeff Marks Marks said. “We do know the Franklin County sheriff … they are working very diligently to track down both the motive and the person responsible for this terrible crime against two fine journalists.”
A former reporter of WDBJ, Flanagan, who worked under the name Bryce Williams, started at the station in 2012 and was let go less than a year later. He accused the station of racial discrimination, filing an EEOC complaint that was eventually dismissed.
A native of San Francisco, Flanagan worked at two other television stations. He said he was the victim of racial discrimination at a station in Tallahassee, Fla. Several people who had worked with him said he complained about being a victim of racial discrimination.
“He was a good on-air performer, a pretty good reporter,” San Diego 6 News Director Don Shafer said in one report. “And then things started getting a little strange.” Shafer had hired and fired Flanagan at a Florida television station.
On the day of the shooting, Flanagan faxed a 23-page letter to ABC News stating that he was provoked by the Charleston church shooting and said he admired the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech shooters.
“Yes, it will sound like I am angry … I am,” Flanagan wrote. “And I have every right to be. But when I leave this Earth, the only emotion I want to feel is peace. … The church shooting was the tipping point … but my anger has been building steadily … I’ve been a human powder keg for a while … just waiting to go BOOM!!!!”