Virginia officials say disgruntled TV station employee Vester Lee Flanagan, who shot and killed a reporter and videographer for a CBS affiliate in central Virginia during a live broadcast Wednesday morning, has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities were pursuing Bryce Williams, whose given name is Vester Lee Flanagan, Wednesday morning after officials say he opened fire on two employees of TV news station WDBJ-7.
A Virginia State Police spokeswoman said that hours later, about 11:30 a.m. a state trooper spotted the vehicle that the former TV news reporter had used to flee and attempted to get him to pull over. Mr. Flanagan refused to stop and sped away, but minutes later his vehicle swerved off the road and crashed. Troopers discovered Mr. Flanagan inside the car suffering from a gunshot wound, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. He was taken to a hospital with critical injuries.
The gunman later died at Inova Fairfax Hospital, state police said.
Mr. Flanagan had previously worked for the TV news station, and in 2014 filed a lawsuit against the station.
The shooting created shock waves online both because the ambush was broadcast on a live TV and because the shooter himself appeared to have posted video capturing the incident on his own social media account.
Video apparently recorded by the gunman of the shooting was posted to the Twitter account @bryce_williams7. The short clip kept 24-year-old reporter Alison Parker and 27-year-old cameraman Adam Ward within the frame as the shooter slowly approached them. A handgun then appears in the frame. On the live TV news segment several loud bangs are heard, followed by screams. The Twitter account was suspended shortly afterward and the video posted to YouTube was also taken down.
Court records from Roanoke County District Court show that Mr. Flanagan had filed suit against the TV station where he previously worked in 2014 but the lawsuit was later dismissed. In 2001, Mr. Flanagan had also filed filed suit against a Florida TV news station where he had worked at the time, alleging that he was the victim of racial discrimination.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Flanagan alleged that a producer at the WTWC-TV station in Leon County, Florida called him a “monkey” and others stated that the newscaster got his job because he is black. The lawsuit was later settled.
Wednesday’s shooting happened while the TV news crew was filming a live broadcast from Bridgewater Plaza on Smith Mountain Lake water park in Moneta, Virginia, about 6:45 a.m. Ms. Parker was in the process of interviewing Vicki Gardner, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, when shots rang out. Ms. Gardner was injured and taken to a hospital for surgery.
Gov. Terry McAullife described what he knew of the incident from briefings with law enforcement on Wednesday morning. He said early on that police knew who the suspect was and had both the suspect’s license plate number and a photo of him.
“We believe he is a disgruntled employee of the TV station. Unfortunately he probably knew both of the victims,” Mr. McAuliffe said during an interview on WTOP. “Apparently he’s called a friend or something, was distraught.”
WDBJ7 General Manager Jeff Marks announced on-air shortly after the incident that the two reporters were killed.
“We do know that Franklin County sheriff… they are working very diligently to track down both the motive and the person responsible for this terrible crime against two fine journalists,” Mr. Marks said.
Ms. Parker grew up in Martinsville and attended Patrick Henry Community College and graduated from James Madison University in 2012. Mr. Ward graduated from Salem High School and Virginia Tech.
Mr. Ward was engaged to be married to a producer at WDBJ7, who was in the control room watching the broadcast when the shooting took place, Mr. Marks told CNN. Mr. Ward was planning to get out of the media business soon.
Ms. Parker was dating WDBJ7 anchor Chris Hurst. He tweeted a photo of himself and Ms. Parker shortly after the shooting with the caption “We didn’t share this publicly, but @AParkerWDBJ7 and I were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb.”
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has taken the lead on the investigation, though both the Virginia State Police and the FBI are assisting.
Officials were expected to provide an update on the investigation at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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