Suspect dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound.
MONETA, Va. (AP) — A law enforcement official says the suspect in the on-air shooting of two TV station employees died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. “Bill” Overton Jr. gave that detail Wednesday during a news conference.
Officials say they don’t yet know a motive in the fatal on-air shooting of a reporter and a cameraman from a TV station in Virginia.
Authorities say they know the suspect, Vester Flanagan, was a former employee at the station, WDBJ-TV. They say they don’t know if the shooting was racially motivated. Flanagan was black and had formerly complained about racial bias at the station.
Flanagan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after the Wednesday morning shooting. He went by Bryce Williams on the air.
Virginia State Police say that as they were pursuing the suspect in an on-air fatal shooting, he ran off the road and crashed, and was found suffering from a gunshot wound.
Police say that shortly before 11:30 a.m., they initiated a traffic stop on the suspect vehicle on Interstate 66. Police say the driver refused to stop and sped away from the trooper, but ran off the road and crashed. Police say the troopers approached and found the driver suffering from a gunshot wound, and he is being taken to a hospital.
Suspect’s Twitter feed includes allegations of workplace conflicts
MONETA, Va. (AP) — A Twitter account under an apparent alias of a man suspected of killing a TV reporter and cameraman describes what he claims were workplace conflicts with the pair.
The suspect, 41-year-old Vester Flanagan, appeared on air at WDBJ in Virginia under the name Bryce Williams. The tweets posted just hours after the killings of 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old cameraman Adam Ward claim Parker made racist comments.
The tweets also say Williams filed a report with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and that Parker was still hired despite that report. The tweets also say the cameraman had reported Williams to human resources after working with him one time. The nature of that complaint was not described.
UPDATE: Station GM says suspect was angry man who was fired
MONETA, Va. (AP) — The general manager of a TV station where two employees were fatally shot during a live broadcast describes the suspect as an unhappy, angry man who eventually was fired.
Jeffrey Marks of WDBJ-TV in Virginia talked briefly on air about Vester Flanagan— who went by Bryce Williams on the air — on Wednesday afternoon. Marks says Flanagan was hired as a reporter a few years ago after a while out of the TV news business.
Marks says the man had a reputation of being difficult to work with and being on the lookout for people to say things he could take offense to.
Marks says: “Eventually, after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. He did not take that well.”
Marks says that when Flanagan was fired, police had to escort him from the building.
Marks said that Flanagan alleged that other employees made racially-tinged comments to him and that he filed a complaint with the EEOC. But Marks says the allegations couldn’t be corroborated. He says the claim was dismissed.
Marks says Flanagan remained in town after being fired, and every now and then, station employee ran into him.
WDBJ listed Bryce Williams as a reporter at the station on its website on Jan. 17, 2013. By Feb. 8 that same year, his name no longer
NEW: Slain TV reporter, cameraman were team working on careers
MONETA, Va. (AP) — The television reporter and cameraman killed while they were doing a live shot are being described as a team who were at the beginning of their careers.
Friends and colleagues said Wednesday that Alison Parker and Adam Ward were part of a close-knit family at TV station WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia.
The 24-year-old Parker was hired at WDBJ full time about a year ago. The 27-year-old Ward had worked at the station for several years, first in the production department, then as a video journalist.
They both found love at the station. Parker was dating an anchor. Ward was engaged to a producer.
The gunman has been described as a disgruntled former station employee. He is at a hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound.
Wounded woman is stable
MONETA, Va. (AP) — A woman shot and wounded while she was being interviewed by a television crew during a live broadcast is in stable condition after undergoing surgery.
Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital said on its Facebook page Wednesday that Vicki Gardner, a local economic development official who also was on the hospital’s board of directors, was recovering after the surgery. It did not elaborate on the nature of her wounds.
The hospital statement also says that hospital staff had gotten to know the two journalists killed, 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward, through many live reports from the hospital’s facilities. It says the two were more than just journalists — “they were good friends who will be missed.”