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| CORRECTS YEAR FLANAGAN WAS FIRED TO 2013 FROM EARLIER THIS YEAR - This undated photograph made available by WDBJ-TV shows reporter Alison Parker, left, and cameraman Adam Ward. Parker and Ward were fatally shot during an on-air interview, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, in Moneta, Va. Authorities identified the suspect as fellow journalist Vester Lee Flanagan II, who appeared on WDBJ-TV as Bryce Williams. Flanagan was fired from the station in 2013. |
MONETA, Va.
(AP) -- He planned it all so carefully - a choreographed execution of
two former colleagues, broadcast live to a horrified television
audience. Hours later, he shared his own recording of the killing
worldwide on social media.
Vester Lee
Flanagan's video shows him approaching WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and
cameraman Adam Ward, gun in hand, as they conduct an interview. He
points the gun at Parker and then at Ward, but he waits patiently to
shoot until he knows that Parker is on camera, so she will be gunned
down on air.
TV viewers heard about the first
eight of 15 shots. They saw Parker scream and run, and heard her crying
"Oh my God!" as she fell. Ward fell, too, and the camera he had been
holding on his shoulder captured a fleeting image of the suspect holding
a handgun.
That man, authorities said, was
Flanagan - a former staffer who used the on-air name of Bryce Williams
and was fired by WDBJ, a man who always was looking for reasons to take
offense, colleagues recalled. He fled the scene but then posted his own
56-second video of the murders on Twitter and Facebook. He later ran off
a highway while being pursued hundreds of miles away and was captured;
he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Wednesday's
on-air murders reverberated far from central Virginia because that's
just what the killer wanted - not just to avenge perceived wrongs, but
to gain maximum, viral exposure. He used his insider's knowledge of TV
journalism against his victims - a 24-year-old reporter who was a rising
star and a 27-year-old cameraman engaged to a producer who watched the
slaughter live from the control room.
Flanagan's
planning may have started weeks ago when, ABC News said, a man claiming
to be Bryce Williams called repeatedly, saying he wanted to pitch a
story and needed fax information. He sent ABC's newsroom a 23-page fax
two hours after the 6:45 a.m. shooting that was part-manifesto,
part-suicide note - calling himself a gay black man who had been
mistreated by people of all races, and saying he bought the gun two days
after nine black people were killed in a June 17 shooting at a
Charleston church. The fax also included admiration for the gunmen in
mass killings at places like Virginia Tech and Columbine High School in
Colorado.
He described himself as a "human powder keg," that was "just waiting to go BOOM!!!!"
Parker
and Ward were a regular team, providing stories for the station's
"Mornin'" show on everything from breaking news to feature stories on
subjects like child abuse. Their live spot Wednesday was nothing out of
the ordinary: They were interviewing a local official at an outdoor
shopping mall for a tourism story before the shots rang out.
As
Parker screamed and Ward collapsed, Ward's camera kept rolling,
capturing the image of the suspect pointing the gun. WDBJ quickly
switched to the anchor back at the station, clearly shocked, who told
viewers, "OK, not sure what happened there."
Parker
and Ward died at the scene. Their interview subject, Vicki Gardner,
also was shot, but emerged from surgery later Wednesday in stable
condition.
Flanagan, 41, who was fired from
WDBJ in 2013, was described by the station's president and general
manager, Jeffrey Marks, as an "an unhappy man" and "difficult to work
with," always "looking out for people to say things he could take
offense to."
"Eventually after many incidents
of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. He did not take that
well," Marks said. He recalled that police had to escort Flanagan out of
the building because he refused to leave when he was fired.
Tweets
posted Wednesday on the gunman's Twitter account - since suspended -
described workplace conflicts with both victims. He said he filed a
complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against
Parker, and that Ward had reported him to human resources.
Marks
said Flanagan alleged that other employees made racially tinged
comments to him, but that his EEOC claim was dismissed and none of his
allegations could be corroborated.
"We think they were fabricated," the station manager said.
Dan
Dennison, now a state government spokesman in Hawaii, was the WDBJ news
director who hired
Flanagan in 2012 and fired him in 2013, largely for
performance issues, he said.
"We did a
thorough investigation and could find no evidence that anyone had
racially discriminated against this man," Dennison said. "You just never
know when you're going to work how a potentially unhinged or unsettled
person might impact your life in such a tragic way."
Court
records and recollections from former colleagues at a half-dozen other
small-market stations where he bounced around indicate that Flanagan was
quick to file complaints. He was fired at least twice after managers
said he was causing problems with other employees.
Both
Parker and Ward grew up in the Roanoke area, attended high school there
and later interned at the station. After Parker's internship, she moved
to a smaller market in Jacksonville, North Carolina, before returning
to WDBJ. She was dating Chris Hurst, an anchor at the station and had
just moved in with him.
"We were together
almost nine months," Hurst posted on Facebook. "It was the best nine
months of our lives. We wanted to get married. We just celebrated her
24th birthday. She was the most radiant woman I ever met."
Ward,
who played high school football, was a devoted fan of his alma mater,
Virginia Tech. His colleagues said he rarely, if ever, missed a game.
They called him a "happy-go-lucky guy" - even during the early morning
hours that are the proving ground for so many beginning journalists.
Ward's
fiancee, station producer Melissa Ott, was in the control room marking
her last day on the job when the shots rang out. Ward had planned to
follow her to her new job in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Marks
helped lead the live coverage Wednesday after the station confirmed its
two employees were dead. He said he and his staff covered the story
despite their grief, to honor their slain colleagues.
"Our
hearts are broken," he said. "Our sympathy goes to the entire staff
here, but also the parents and family of Alison Parker and Adam Ward,
who were just out doing their job today."
