Vester Lee Flanagan, 41, known professionally as Bryce Williams, shot and killed former co-workers reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, early on Wednesday morning.
Parker and Ward were reporting a story live from Smith Mountain Lake and the shooting was seen by viewers watching CBS affiliate WBDJ Roanoke, Va., until the dying Ward dropped the camera.
A local official, Vicki Gardner, also was shot but she is expected to recover after undergoing surgery.
After capturing footage from the grisly scene and posting it on social media (which since has been taken down), Flanagan ran for it but ended up shooting himself in a car he rented more than a month ago. He was then apprehended by police on Highway 66 and taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va., hospital, where he died at approximately 1:30 p.m.
On Tuesday night, Flanagan faxed a 23-page statement to ABC News explaining his actions and tying them to the June 17 church shootings in Charleston, S.C. Flanagan had been fired from the station in 2013 after displaying inappropriate anger in multiple situations, reports The Washington Post.
“He was sort of looking out for people to say things that he could take offense to,” WBDJ Station Manager Jeff Marks told the Post. “And eventually, after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. And he did not take that well. We had to call the police to escort him from the building.”
Marks also said after he was let go, Flanagan filed an action with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but that none of Flanagan’s complaints were ever able to be confirmed and the claim was dismissed.
Both Parker and Ward were in relationships with co-workers at the station. Parker had just moved in with anchor Chris Hurst, who posted on Instagram: “We didn’t share this publicly, but @AParkerWDBJ7 and I were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb.”
Ward was engaged to Melissa Ott, who was supposed to be celebrating her last day at the station on Wednesday before the couple moved to Charlotte, N.C., where she had gotten a new job.
Parker and Ward are the seventh and eighth journalists to have been killed in the U.S. since 1992.
Read more: The Washington Post, ABC News
Brief Take: Our hearts go out to everyone at WBDJ in the wake of this terrible tragedy.
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