

They were both engaged to be married to other people. “I cannot tell you how much they were loved,” Marks said. The station described the two dead journalists as an ambitious reporter-and-cameraman team who often produced light and breezy feature stories for the morning program. 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. Gunshots erupted, and as Ward fell his camera hit the ground but kept running. The station’s broadcast showed Parker interviewing Gardner about the lake and tourism development in the area.

He said the interview was to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Smith Mountain Lake. Nothing of this nature that any of us could recall.” Police said later he had died.Īsked 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 e-mail or something and we'll look into it. He was taken to a nearby hospital, police said, adding he was believed to be the suspect in the television shootings.
#Journalists shot on air video driver
The troopers approached the vehicle and found the male driver suffering from a gunshot wound,” police said in a statement. “Minutes later, the suspect’s vehicle ran off the road and crashed. Virginia state police said the suspect refused to stop when spotted by troopers and sped away. The network turned the fax over to authorities, it said, without giving details on its contents.įlanagan shot himself as Virginia State Police were closing in on a rental car on Interstate 66 in Fauquier County, WDBJ7 said. The victims in yesterday’s shooting were white.ĪBC News reported on its website it received a 23-page fax from someone claiming to be Bryce Williams some time between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Video online showed shooting that appeared to be from the shooter's vantage point The Florida case was settled and dismissed the next year, court records show. He also said a supervisor at the station called black people lazy. Flanagan said he was called a “monkey” by a producer in a lawsuit filed in federal court against a Tallahassee station, WTWC, in 2000. The person purporting to be Williams also posted, “I filmed the shooting see Facebook” as well as saying one of the victims had “made racist comments.”įlanagan had sued another station where he worked in Florida, alleging he had been discriminated against because he was black. One video clearly showed a handgun as the person filming approached the woman reporter. The videos were removed shortly afterward. 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. Hours after the shooting, someone claiming to have filmed it posted video online that appeared to be from the shooter's vantage point.

The broadcast was abruptly interrupted by the sound of gunshots as Parker and the woman being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, screamed and ducked for cover. The on-air shooting occurred at about 6.45am during an interview at Bridgewater Plaza, a Smith Mountain Lake recreation site about 320 kilometres southwest of Washington, DC The woman being interviewed on the morning news programme was wounded. The WDBJ7 journalists who were killed were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. Social media postings by a person who appeared to be Flanagan indicated the suspect had grievances against the station, CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Virginia, which let him go two years ago. He died later at the hospital, police said. The suspect, 41-year-old Vester Flanagan, shot and wounded himself several hours later as police pursued him on a Virginia highway.
#Journalists shot on air video tv
A television reporter and a cameraman were shot and killed during a live broadcast in Virginia yesterday in an attack authorities said was carried out by a former employee of the TV station.
