MONETA, Va. -- A TV reporter and cameraman were shot to death on live television Wednesday by a former colleague, who recorded himself carrying out the killings and posted the video on social media.
The gunman, who was fired in 2013 from CBS affiliate WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., later took his own life, but not before fleeing the scene and posting the video to Facebook and Twitter. He also reportedly faxed a 23-page manifesto and "suicide note" to ABC News, describing himself as a "human powder keg" that was "just waiting to go BOOM!!!!"
The victims of Wednesday's shooting were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27.
Authorities said Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, who appeared on WDBJ as Bryce Williams, had been planning the attack for some time. As Flanagan fled, he switched vehicles, picking up a rental car he had previously reserved at an airport. After leading the police on a high-speed pursuit, the gunman shot himself fatally in the head.
In the live broadcast, Ward was working the camera as Parker interviewed a business association official while at Bridgewater Plaza, an outdoor shopping mall, for a tourism story about 50th-anniversary festivities for Smith Mountain Lake.
Then, at 6:46 a.m., viewers saw Parker suddenly scream and run, crying "Oh my God," as she falls. Ward fell, too, and the camera he had been holding on his shoulder captured a fleeting image of the suspect holding a handgun.
Eight shots can be heard before WDBJ cuts back to the stunned anchor at the station, Kimberly McBroom, her eyes large and jaw dropping as she said, "OK, not sure what happened there." The station later went live again, reporting on its own staff members as the story developed.
An estimated 40,000 viewers saw it unfold live.
Parker and Ward died at the scene after the gunman fired about 15 shots. The interview subject, Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, was in stable condition later Wednesday after surgery for her wounds.
Hours after the shooting and more than 160 miles away, police officers caught up with Flanagan's rental car going north on Interstate 81, and then east on Interstate 66. The Virginia State Police said its troopers tried to pull him over shortly before 11:30 a.m. on I-66, but he sped away and, minutes later, ran off the road and crashed.
A Virginia official said it appeared Williams had shot himself in the head while driving, which caused the crash. He died about 1:30 p.m. after being airlifted to a hospital.
Gunman's video
The gunman's 56-second video, posted on a Facebook page under Flanagan's Bryce Williams name and linked to his Twitter account, shows an outstretched arm holding the handgun. The shooter waits until the interview goes live and walks up to the victims, standing a few feet away. None of the victims seems to notice. The gunman waits until Ward's camera was pointed at Parker, and then fires repeatedly.
Both his Twitter and Facebook accounts have since been shut down.
WDBJ news director Kelly Zuber was asked in an interview whether the station planned to air the video.
"At this point we don't," she said Wednesday evening. "We'll review that as we go. It's pretty raw right now in our newsroom. And we will continue to process the journalism, and if that piece of video is important to what we do, we'll include it. But for right now, no. No."
In the days before the shootings, Flanagan posted photos of himself on Twitter and Facebook. The postings continued after the shooting, when he tweeted that Parker had "made racist comments" and Ward had complained to human resources about him. Parker and Ward were white; Flanagan was black.
Flanagan was described by Jeffrey Marks, WDBJ's president and general manager, 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 as a reporter.
The tweets by Flanagan also said he had filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Parker.
Marks said Flanagan alleged that other employees made racially tinged comments to him, but said his EEOC claim was dismissed and none of his allegations could be corroborated.
"We think they were fabricated," Marks said.
A spokesman for the EEOC, Kimberly Smith-Brown, said federal law prohibited her from confirming whether the agency had received a complaint.
Dan Dennison, who now works in Hawaii, was the WDBJ news director who hired Flanagan in 2012 and fired him in 2013, largely for performance problems, he said.
"We did a thorough investigation and could find no evidence that anyone had racially discriminated against this man," Dennison said.
Faxed suicide note
ABC News reported that a man claiming to be Flanagan had called the network, saying he had just shot two people and was faxing them a 23-page document. That document is being analyzed by investigators, Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. "Bill" Overton Jr. said at a news conference.
According to the network, Flanagan says in the "suicide note" that the carnage was his reaction to the racism of the Charleston, S.C., church shooting, in which nine church members were killed.
"Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15," he wrote, according to ABC. "The church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15."
In the fax, he said that he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work and that he had been attacked by black men and white women. He talked about how he was attacked for being a gay black man.
Overton said, "This gentleman was disturbed at the way things had turned out at some point in his life. Things were spiraling out of control."
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.
According to his LinkedIn page, Flanagan was a multimedia journalist at WDBJ but left the station in February 2013 after less than a year. He previously worked at television stations across the South, including in Greenville, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Tallahassee, Fla.
Flanagan filed a lawsuit in 2000 against WTWC-TV, the Tallahassee station where he worked, over allegations of race discrimination, claiming that a producer called him a "monkey" in 1999 and that other black employees had been called the same name by other workers. Flanagan also claimed that an unnamed white supervisor at the station said black people were lazy because they did not take advantage of scholarships to attend college.
The case was quickly settled on undisclosed terms.
Flanagan grew up in Oakland, Calif.
Virgil Barker, who grew up on the same tree-lined street in the Oakland hills, recalled his childhood friend Wednesday with fondness.
"I know you want to hear that he was a monster, but he was the complete opposite," Barker said. "He was very, very loving."
Barker said he had lost touch with Flanagan over the years but remained close to Flanagan's sister, who still lives in the family's house across the street.
No one answered the door Wednesday at that house.
Station's coverage
Less that 12 hours after the shooting, WDBJ returned to its regular broadcast at 5 p.m.. Grief was evident.
"This is a hard day for all of us here at WDBJ7," said another station anchor, Melissa Ganoa. "We are mourning Alison and Adam, but it is our job to find the facts."
The area outside the studio was turned into a tribute to Parker and Ward, with dozens of balloons and flower arrangements dotting the property leading to the front door.
Throughout the day, Marks had helped lead the live coverage 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."
Discussing Parker and Ward on the air, Marks said, "I cannot tell you how much they were loved."
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, N.C., before returning to WDBJ. She was dating Chris Hurst, an anchor at the station and had just moved in with him.
Hurst wrote on Twitter that they hadn't shared their relationship publicly but "were very much in love." He said they had just moved in together and wanted to get married. "I am numb," he said.
"She was the most radiant woman I ever met," Hurst said.
Her father, Andy Parker, spoke to The Washington Post.
"My grief is unbearable," he said. "Is this real? Am I going to wake up? I am crying my eyes out. I don't know if there's anybody in this world or another father who could be more proud of their daughter."
Ward was engaged to a producer at the station, Melissa Ott, who 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, N.C.
"This is a horrific day for our family and the community we serve," Brent Watts, the station's chief meteorologist, said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama called the shooting heartbreaking.
"What we know is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Steve Helber, Pam Ramsey, Jonathan Drew, Adam Geller, Tamara Lush, Lynn Elber and staff members of The Associated Press and by Hawes Spencer, Katie Rogers, Alan Blinder, Richard Perez-Pena and Manny Fernandez of The New York Times.
A Section on 08/27/2015