A horrific tragedy struck Virginia earlier today when a gunman, presumed to be a disgruntled employee, shot two WDBJ7 employees live on the air. The two victims are Alison Parker (age 24) who was the station’s news reporter and Adam Ward (age 27) who was the station’s cameraman.
“Law enforcement personnel have a photo of the suspect,” Governor Terry McAuliffe said in the shooting’s aftermath. “We believe it’s a disgruntled employee of the station, and they’re in pursuit.”
Subsequently, authorities found the alleged suspect’s vehicle unattended at the Roanoke Airport.
The most recent update has pegged former station employee Vester Lee Flanagan as the suspect. On air, Flanagan reported under the name Bryce Williams. According to WTVR, Flanagan had been fired from the station, though that news hadn’t yet been made public.
Shockingly, Flanagan posted first-hand video footage of the shooting online, both to his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The Daily Beast adds:
In the tweets, Flanagan hinted at possible motives for the shooting. He tweeted about filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint and alleged that the reporter had made racist comments. “They hired her after that???” he tweeted. The slain producer, he claimed, complained to HR about him after working together one time. His final text tweet boasted about filming the attack.
Both accounts have since been suspended but a Google cached version his Twitter account (with no link to the video, we can assure you) can be seen below.
As it stands now on, Flanagan is still on the run and is wanted for murder.
UPDATE: The latest report is that Flanagan has since killed himself.
According to The Daily Beast: “At 11:37 a.m., police said over the radio to disregard the search for Flanagan, who is believed to be dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Below is a photo of Flanagan courtesy of ThinkProgress.
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