This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/26/virginia-gunman-kills-reporter-cameraman

The article has changed 13 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 6 Version 7
Virginia shooting suspect in hospital after journalists killed during broadcast Virginia shooting suspect in hospital after journalists killed during broadcast
(about 2 hours later)
A suspect is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after allegedly killing two members of a news crew and injuring a third person in Moneta, Virginia, in a shooting that took place during a live TV broadcast on Wednesday morning. Two local TV reporters were shot dead in the midst of a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday, apparently the victims of an attack perpetrated by a disgruntled former colleague.
Related: Virginia shooting: police have identified gunman who killed news crew – live Related: Virginia shooting: police say suspected gunman is dead - live updates
WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were killed. Interviewee Vicki Gardner, who was also shot, is undergoing surgery in hospital. The shooting occurred around 6.45am local time, near Roanoke, and appeared to have been carefully orchestrated to construct a horrific spectacle that would play out live on TV.
A shocking video of the shooting was subsequently posted on Twitter and Facebook. Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman, Adam Ward, 27, were broadcasting a live interview with an official from the local chamber of commerce when there was the sudden sound of gunfire and screams. The camera tumbled to the ground, and producers at the local WDBJ7 news station cut off the broadcast, switching to a shocked-looking anchor in the studio.
Virginia state police said that they spotted a “suspect vehicle” heading eastbound on Interstate 66 and attempted to stop it. “The suspect vehicle refused to stop and sped away from the trooper,” the police force reported on Facebook. “Minutes later, the suspect vehicle ran off the road and crashed. The troopers approached the vehicle and found the male driver suffering from a gunshot wound. It later emerged that both Parker and Ward died at the scene. The gunman also shot their interviewee, Vicki Gardner, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake regional chamber of commerce. Gardner survived and is in stable condition after surgery.
“He is being transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries.” The suspect, Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, was a former TV reporter at WDBJ7, who broadcast under the on-air name Bryce Williams. He died several hours after shooting himself.
The police force added: “The male driver is believed to be the same male subject who shot three people this morning in Franklin County during a television news interview.” Related: Virginia TV shooter Vester Lee Flanagan was a 'disturbed' and 'unhappy man'
Virginia’s governor, Terry McAuliffe, had said that police believed the suspect was a “disgruntled employee” from the station. By then Flanagan had posted on the internet his own video of the attack, apparently shot with a GoPro-style camera.
Virginia state police have announced a press conference. Flanagan, who is black, and claimed racially toned grievances against his former employer, also faxed a 23-page document to ABC News in which he made bizarre references to mass shootings.
A Twitter account purporting to be run by the gunman posted a video of the shooting, as well as one of the lead-up to the attack. Both were posted as one file on Facebook. He connected the atrocity in Roanoke to the recent shooting by a white supremacist at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The videos, posted in the name of Bryce Williams, the name journalist Vester Lee Flanagan reported under for WDBJ7, show an approach to Parker, Gardner and Ward on the deck where they were filming an interview. “Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15 …,” Flanagan wrote in the document, according to ABC News. “What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them.”
The three continue reporting live and do not acknowledge the approaching person. The person filming then angles alongside the cameraman and aims a handgun directly at Parker, who does not appear to notice. At a press conference later on Wednesday, Franklin County sheriff Bill Overton said it was too early to conclude any specific motives behind the killings and said investigators were in possession of the document faxed to ABC as well as a cascade of social media postings published by the suspect before and after the attack.
A second video shows the gunman shooting at Parker as she runs away from the shots. “It is obvious that this gentleman was disturbed in some way, the ways things had transpired at some point in his life,” he said. “It would appear that things were spiralling out of control.”
The video then cuts. The Twitter account has now been suspended. Other tweets stated: “I filmed the shooting see Facebook,” “Adam went to [human resources] on me after working with me one time!!!” and “Alison made racist comments. EEOC report filed. They hired her after that???” Overton told reporters that Flanagan fled the scene of the shooting in a gray Chevrolet Sonic, sparking a manhunt that culminated, four hours later, near Washington DC.
Jeffrey Marks, WDBJ’s president and general manager, said Flanagan was a journalist who had been fired from the station, and had had to be escorted out by police afterwards. Around 11am, a Virginia state police patrol car equipped with a license plate reading reader identified Flanagan’s vehicle on the Interstate 66 in Fauquier County. After a brief pursuit, Flanagan shot himself. He died in the hospital two hours later.
Marks described him as “an unhappy man” and “difficult to work with,” always “looking out for people to say things he could take offense to”. Flanagan had driven some 200 miles from the lakeside resort where he is suspected of killing his former colleagues, around four hours earlier live on TV. He apparently posted messages and video on Twitter and Facebook either immediately before or during his journey north.
“Eventually after many incidents of his anger ... we dismissed him. He did not take that well,” Marks explained. “Vester was an unhappy man,” WDBJ7’s station manager, Jeff Marks, told viewers live on air a few hours later. “We employed him as a reporter, and he had some talent in that respect and some experience, although he’d been out of the business for a while.”
Marks said Williams alleged that other employees made racially tinged comments to him, but said his complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim was dismissed and none of his allegations could be corroborated. “He quickly gathered a reputation as someone who was difficult to work with,” he added, saying that Flanagan would quickly “take offence”. “Eventually after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. And he did not take that well, we had to call the police to escort him from the building.”
“We think they were fabricated,” Marks said. Marks added that Flanagan filed an action against the TV station with the Equal Opportunity Employment Committee, in which he alleged staff at the company had made “racial comments”. A copy of the suit, filed in 2014 and obtained by the Guardian on Wednesday, shows he was disciplined by the Virginia station. Marks added the EOEC complaint was not upheld.
The shooting occurred around 6.45am ET, when the news crew from WDBJ7 local news was conducting a live broadcast about local tourism at at the Bridgewater Plaza, near Smith Mountain Lake. Flanagan, who had experience in local TV news across the country, had made similar allegations against another employer, in Florida, more than 15 years ago. Court filings showed he sued TWC, the NBC affiliate in Tallahassee, alleging racial discrimination in a case that was settled out of court in 2001.
They were interviewing Gardner, a representative from the local chamber of commerce, when up to eight shots rang out. Screams followed as the camera fell to the ground. Shocked and distraught and barely able to compute what had happened, WDBJ7’s news team continued to broadcast through the day, telling viewers they had news of a story “that has affected our WDBJ7 family very deeply”.
WDBJ7 interspersed updates from police about the hunt for Flanagan with emotional, hastily-pulled-together tributes to their murdered colleagues. Occasionally, the anchors had to fight back tears, or just expressed their disbelief at what had happened.
The scene was broadcast live to residents Roanoke, where the TV station is based, as well as those living in nearby towns in rural Virginia. “Its surreal, I was on the air when it happened,” anchor Kimberly McBroom said. “We thought it was a car backfiring, possibly fireworks. That was the last thing I thought was happening.”
The live broadcast was cut off shortly after the sound of shots and screaming. Producers switched back to the WDBJ7 local studio, where a shocked anchor was staring at the camera. Parker had been at the station for less than a year, but was familiar face to residents of Roanoke and the surrounding towns in rural Virginia. Ward was described by colleagues as a supremely talented photographer who could put his subjects at ease.
Police were aided by images of the gunman that were captured moments after Ward was fatally shot and fell to the ground. They showed a man dressed in black, apparently holding a gun pointed directly at the cameraman. Related: Alison Parker and Adam Ward: 'rockstar' reporter and gregarious cameraman
“Today was just like any other day,” anchor Kim McBroom said of Parker and Ward on their station’s morning broadcast. “They did great work every day and put their all into everything they did. In recent weeks Flanagan had posted dozens of images of his life, going back to his childhood. After the shooting, Flanagan tweeted disparaging remarks about both of his victims.
“They were special people. They would lighten up a room.” “Alison made racist comments,” he said of Parker. “They hired her after that???” In a reference to Ward, he added: “Adam went to hr [human resources] on me after working with me one time!!!”
With crying on the set of the studio audible, another anchor, Jean Jadhon, described Parker as “a rock star. She was a professional, so much fun and so kind.” Seconds later, there was a chilling update: “I filmed the shooting see Facebook.”
Jeff Marks, the station’s general manager, recounted what police had told the station. “Someone with a gun, we believe it was a man, barged into where they were and fired several shots, six or seven, it sounded like. We heard screaming, and then we heard nothing, the camera fell. The disturbing video Flanagan posted on Facebook was filmed from the perspective of the shooter.
“The scene was described to us as chaos.” It showed the gunman approaching Parker and Ward as they interviewed Gardner on a wooden deck at the Bridgewater Plaza, near Smith Mountain Lake. They were mid-broadcast, and Gardner was telling WDBJ7 viewers about the benefit to local tourism of the nearby lake.
He expressed disbelief at the shooting: “How can this individual have robbed these families of Adam and Alison of their happiness and their love, for whatever reason?” The gunman walked slowly toward the trio, stood behind the cameraman, whispered “bitch” and pointed his handgun at the reporter. Concentrating on the interview, she appeared not to notice.
Parker originally joined the station as an intern, and had graduated from James Madison University in 2012. According to her profile on the site, she enjoyed kayaking and local theater. The interview continued for approximately 20 seconds before shots ring out. The final segments of the film show Parker screaming and running away.
Ward was described as a gregarious, hardworking photojournalist, an avid fan of Virginia Tech and longtime employee of the station. He was engaged to Melissa Ott, a producer on the station who was celebrating her last day on Wednesday before going to a new job in Charlotte. He had planned to join her there and find a new job with her. In a cycle that is now familiar to Americans, the horrific, made-for-media shooting was immediately followed by calls for changes to the country’s lax gun laws that have enabled so many similar tragedies.
Parker had recently celebrated a birthday and was dating WDBJ7 reporter Chris Hurst. There was, however, also an acknowledgement, on all sides, that the political appetite for reform does not exist, particularly among Republicans.
Hurst tweeted on Wednesday morning that although “we didn’t share this publicly” he and Parker “were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Iowa, said: “I hope that in addition to expressing sympathy for those directly affected, that this – maybe for the media, public, elected officials, for every American – is what it will hopefully finally take for us to act.”The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said the shooting was “another example of gun violence that is becoming all too common in communities large and small all across the United States”. “While there is no piece of legislation that will end all violence, there are some common sense things that only Congress can do that we know will have a tangible impact on reducing gun violence in this country,” he added.
“She was the most radiant woman I ever met. And for some reason she loved me back. She loved her family, her parents and her brother. We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives. We wanted to get married.” The last major push for modest gun reforms in Washington – following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 – ended in failure. Twenty children and six adults were killed.
The station chief said the news team would hold a memorial on Wednesday afternoon. In Roanoake on Wednesday, there was an outpouring of grief for the two dead reporters, including from the local police department, which works closely with local journalists.
Schools in the area have been locked down until further notice, the Bedford County superintendent announced. “Alison was always very kindhearted to the officers she interviewed and had the ability to tell a great story. Adam always put our officers, who might have been a little nervous when being interviewed, at ease with his kind words and warm smile,” the department said in a statement.
“They were a team and we enjoyed working together with them on several stories as a team. They will be missed.”
Erin Arnold, the sister of the attack’s lone survivor, said she was grateful Gardner was alive and in stable condition.
“She lost a kidney and part of her large intestine,” Arnold said en route to Roanoke. “She’s 60 years old and still wakeboards. She still climbs up and paints the lighthouse. She’s incredible.”
How the shooting unfoldedHow the shooting unfolded