Roanoke VA: Two TV Journalists Shot To Death, Suspect Dead

UPDATE 2:30 PM:

(Reuters) - Two television journalists were shot and killed in Virginia on Wednesday in an attack during a live early-morning broadcast, and authorities said the suspected gunman was a former employee of the TV station.

The suspect, 41-year-old Vester Flanagan, shot and wounded himself several hours later as police pursued him on a Virginia highway, police said.  He died at 1:30 pm Wednesday.

The two journalists who were killed were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman, Adam Ward, 27, who worked for CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Virginia. The woman they were interviewing was wounded in the shooting.

Police said Flanagan was in life-threatening condition.

The on-air shooting occurred at about 6:45 a.m. EDT during an interview for the morning news program at Bridgewater Plaza, a Smith Mountain Lake recreation site with restaurants, shops, boating and arcades and holiday rentals.

The area is in the south-central part of the state, about 120 miles from the capital of Richmond.

The broadcast was abruptly interrupted by the sound of shots as Parker and the woman being interviewing screamed.

Hours after the shooting, someone claiming to have filmed it posted video online that appeared to be from shooter's vantage point.

The videos were posted to a Twitter account and on Facebook by a man identifying himself as Bryce Williams, which was Flanagan's on-air name.

The videos were removed shortly afterward. One video clearly showed a handgun as the person filming approached the woman reporter.

WDBJ7 reported that Flanagan was a former employee who was let go two years ago.

The station reported that Flanagan shot himself as Virginia State Police were closing in on his rental car on Interstate 66 in Fauquier County. He was driving a rental car after leaving his own car at the Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport this morning, the station reported.

VEHICLE RAN OFF THE ROAD

In a statement, Virginia state police said the suspect refused to stop when spotted by a trooper and sped away.

"Minutes later, the suspect's vehicle ran off the road and crashed. The troopers approached the vehicle and found the male driver suffering from a gunshot wound," police said in the statement.

Asked on CNN if the station had been targeted or had been threatened, WDBJ7 President and General Manager Jeff Marks said, "Every now and then you get a crazy email or something and we'll look into it. Nothing of this nature than any of us could recall."

He said the interview was to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Smith Mountain Lake, and the woman being interviewed was from the local chamber of commerce. She had been talking about the anniversary and tourism.

There was no word yet from the hospital on the condition of the woman, identified as Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The station's broadcast showed Parker interviewing Gardner about the lake and tourism development in the area. Gunshots erupted, and as Ward fell his camera hit the ground but kept running. An image caught on camera showed what appeared to be a man in dark clothing facing the camera with a weapon in his right hand.

The station described the two dead journalists as an ambitious reporter-and-cameraman team who often filmed light and breezy feature stories for the morning program.

"I cannot tell you how much they were loved," Marks said.

Parker grew up in Martinsville and attended Patrick Henry Community College and James Madison University, while Ward graduated from Salem High School and Virginia Tech, the station said.
They were both engaged to be married to other people.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based non-profit press freedom group, condemned the on-air killings.

This year, at least 39 journalists have been killed around the world, with the deadliest countries being France, South Sudan and Syria. "We do know that being a journalist is potentially dangerous anywhere in the world," the group's senior Americas program coordinator, Carlos Lauria, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Emily Flitter, Laila Kearney and Barbara Goldberg in New York and Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)



SUSPECTED GUNMAN HAD SUED FLORIDA STATION

(Reuters) - The suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of two television journalists in Virginia on Wednesday had sued a TV station where he worked in Florida, alleging discrimination because he was black.

Vester Flanagan

Vester Flanagan, 41, was called a "monkey" by a producer, he said in a lawsuit filed in federal court against a Tallahassee station, WTWC, in 2000. He also said a supervisor at the station called black people lazy.

Flanagan later worked for WDBJ7 in Virginia, where he went on the air under the name Bryce Williams, the station said. The anchors said he left the station a couple of years ago not on good terms.

The journalists for WDBJ were allegedly shot and killed on-air in Virginia on Wednesday by Flanagan, police said.

The Florida case was settled and dismissed the next year, court records show.

Flanagan was a weekend news anchor and night reporter at the Florida station, which said at the time of the lawsuit that his contract was not renewed due to budget cuts, according to a 2000 article in the Tallahassee Democrat.

According to his social media sites, Flanagan attended San Francisco State University. A university spokesman said he graduated in 1995 with a degree in radio and television.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)




 
VICTIMS WERE AMBITIOUS AND LOVED

By Laila Kearney
(Reuters) - Alison Parker and Adam Ward were an ambitious reporter and cameraman team at a Virginia television station who often taped light and breezy feature stories for the morning news show.

On Wednesday at about 6:45 a.m. ET, it was business as usual for the two journalists with Roanoke, Virginia-based CBS affiliate WDBJ7, who were conducting a live interview about a local lake until gunfire rang out.

Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, were shot and killed on-air, their final screams broadcast live from Bridgewater Plaza, a recreation site with restaurants and shopping. The shooting suspect was a former or current employee of the station, authorities said.

Alison Parker and Adam Ward

"I cannot tell you how much they were loved," WDBJ General Manager Jeff Marks said about Parker and Ward during a somber broadcast. Station employees could be heard crying in the background.

"These two were more than what you saw here on TV, they were much, much more," anchor woman Kimberly McBroom said.

Parker and Ward were Virginia natives. Parker graduated from Martinsville High School and attended James Madison University, where she excelled academically. She started at WDBJ as an intern about four years ago, left for a spell, then returned.

She was known by coworkers as bubbly, smart and excelling quickly at her job, working her way up to full-time reporter and substitute anchor by her early 20s. When fellow employees suffered personal hardships, she would console them, bring food or flowers to their door, they said.

Ward went to Salem High School and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He was a devoted fan of Virginia Tech sports teams and always had a smile on his face, coworkers said.

Both were engaged to be married to people who worked at the news station.

"I AM NUMB"

Parker was engaged to WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst.

"She was the most radiant woman I ever met," Hurst wrote on Twitter after the death of his fiance, whom he had dated for nine months and was living with. "I am numb."

Hurst said Parker and Ward worked together ever day and "were a team."

Ward was engaged to morning WDBJ producer, Melissa Ott, who was leaving the station for a job in Charlotte, North Carolina, Marks said. Ward was moving with her.

There was cake and balloons in the newsroom on Wednesday morning celebrating the move and the couple's engagement, said anchor Kimberly McBroom.

Ward recently told coworkers he intended to leave the news business when he left for Charlotte.

Ward's personal Facebook page is decorated with images of him and Ott, including his marriage proposal to her.

Parker's page is filled with images of pets, outdoor activities and other outings where she poses with her new fiance.

"There were a lot of good things happening for Adam," McBroom said, choking back tears. "And Alison, wow, she was just a rock star."

(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)


Chris Hurst is a news anchor at WDBJ and has posted the following tribute on his Facebook page:

We didn't share this publicly, but Alison Parker and I were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb. We...
Posted by Chris Hurst Wdbj on Wednesday, August 26, 2015

She previously worked with another CNN affiliate, WCTI, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, near Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

She was a graduate of James Madison University's School of Media Arts and Design in Harrisonburg.


Tweets by @WDBJ7

The station, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va.  is owned by Schurz Communications, was recently fined the maximum penalty of $325,000 for accidentally airing graphic sexual images as part of a news story during its 6 p.m. newscast.   The station is fighting the fine.

The Schurz Communications-owned station filed an appeal detailing why the FCC was out-of-bounds levying a fine against what it called a fleeting, three-second-long clip.