On Wednesday morning a reporter and videographer from WDBJ TV news were shot and killed during a live broadcast near Roanoke, Virginia, which is about a three-hour drive west of Richmond. The victims were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and videographer Adam Ward, 27, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
At 6:30 a.m. Vester Lee Flanagan II, an ex-employee of WDBJ, attacked Parker and Ward during an interview with a local chamber of commerce member, Vicki Gardner. Gardner was wounded, but is in stable condition following surgery.
"You send people into war zones... and you worry that they're going to get hurt," said Jeffrey A. Marks, president and general manager of the station. "How can you expect something like this to happen?"
Flanagan posted a video of the attack on his Twitter and Facebook accounts while he was being pursued by law enforcement, WDBJ7 reports. Around 11:30 a.m. law enforcement tried to stop Flanagan while he was driving, but he refused. Moments later he shot himself, and died in a hospital around 1:30 p.m.
In a letter faxed to ABC News, Flanagan outlined his motives, which involved discrimination based on his race and sexual orientation. In his letter, Flanagan admired the Virginia Tech and Columbine killers and expressed a desire to answer Charleston shooter Dylan Roof's call for a race war.
Kasey McGhee, a Westhampton College student, is from Roanoke, where WDBJ is based, and grew up watching the station.
"It's hard not to feel a connection to people you watch every day on TV that report about community issues that matter to you," McGhee wrote in an email. "They are one of us, they live like us but also have the unique opportunity to deliver news that affects us all. To see such a tragic thing happen on camera was heart wrenching."
Contact features assistant Kayla Solsbak at kayla.solsbak@richmond.edu
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