Alison Parker and Adam Ward killed during live broadcast by suspected gunman Vester Lee Flanagan, who posted own video of shooting before killing himself

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Two local TV reporters were shot dead in the midst of a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday, the victims of an attack perpetrated by a disgruntled former colleague.



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The shooting occurred around 6.45am local time, in Moneta, near Roanoke, and appeared to have been carefully orchestrated to construct a horrific spectacle that would play out live on TV.

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.

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.

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.

Virginia TV shooter Vester Lee Flanagan was a 'disturbed' and 'unhappy man' Read more

By then Flanagan had posted on the internet his own video of the attack, apparently shot with a GoPro-style camera.

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.

He connected the atrocity in Roanoke to the recent shooting by a white supremacist at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

“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.”

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.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Franklin County sheriff Bill Overton holds press conference and confirms death of Vester Lee Flanagan. Link to video

“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.”

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.

Around 11am, a Virginia state police patrol car equipped with a license plate reader identified Flanagan’s vehicle on the Interstate 66 in Fauquier County. After a brief pursuit, Flanagan shot himself. He died in hospital two hours later.

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.

Location of Moneta, Virginia Location of Moneta, Virginia

“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.

“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.”

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Marks added that Flanagan filed an action against the TV station with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 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 EEOC complaint was not upheld.

“This is the worst day of my career – worst day of all our careers,” Marks said in an interview with the Guardian outside the TV station on Wednesday evening. “We’ve lost beloved colleagues.”

On the youth of the victims, he said: “Why was I not targeted? Why was Kelly [Zuber, the news director] not targeted? We are the ones who actually put this guy out of a job.”

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.

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.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A look back at the short but promising careers of Alison Parker and Adam Ward

“It’s 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.”

Parker had been at the station for less than a year, but was a 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. It was to be his last day at the network.

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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.

“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!!!”

Seconds later, there was a chilling update: “I filmed the shooting see Facebook.”

The disturbing video Flanagan posted on Facebook was filmed from the perspective of the shooter.

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.

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.

The interview continued for approximately 20 seconds before shots rang out. The final segments of the film showed Parker screaming and running away.

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.

There was, however, also an acknowledgement, on all sides, that the political appetite for reform does not exist, particularly among Republicans.

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) Heartbroken and angry. We must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer. Praying for the victims' families in Virginia. -H

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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 commonsense things that only Congress can do that we know will have a tangible impact on reducing gun violence in this country,” he added.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest White House spokesman Josh Earnest on need for gun control following latest shooting

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.

In Roanoke 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.

“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 unfolded

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alison Parker on WDBJ moments before the fatal shooting. Photograph: WDBJ

Still of the gunman who shot Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Photograph: WDBJ

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The WDBJ anchor reacts to the shooting. Photograph: WDBJ