Featured Image Credit: Vester Lee Flanagan/ X
Topics: Crime, Social Media, Virginia, US News
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Crime, Social Media, Virginia, US News
The moments leading to the brutal murder of a news reporter and a cameraman were caught during the filming of a live broadcast.
It was just a normal working day for WDBJ7 news reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward on August 26, 2015.
The pair had been out filming a news segment 25 miles outside Roanoke, Virginia, when they were approached by an ex colleague while they were live on air.
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That colleague was Vester Lee Flanagan, who worked under the name of Bryce Williams while at WDBJ7. He'd been fired in 2013 after just a year at the company for 'unsatisfactory job performance and inability to work as a team member', as per his notice of termination obtained by The Guardian.
Flanagan was also accused of 'aggressive' behaviour that made his co-workers feel 'threatened'.
The reporter didn't leave willingly on his last day and had to be escorted out of the newsroom by police.
Over two years on from his dismissal and Flanagan still felt aggrieved, so decided to channel his feelings towards two of his former colleagues, Ward and Parker.
While Parker was conducting an interview live on air, Flanagan filmed himself approaching the 24-year-old journalist with a gun.
Meanwhile Ward, 27, was filming and had his back turned to Flanagan and didn't notice him there.
Parker was deep in conversation with her interviewee when Flanagan, 41, shot at her. The video then cut out before he proceeded to also shoot Ward.
The shooter went on to upload the videos to social media for everyone to see, where he also made allegations that the two had racially abused him at work.
A manhunt across Virginia was then launched to try find Flanagan. The ex WDBJ7 reporter is believed to have shot himself during a police chase after they'd been searching for him for five hours.
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Flanagan, Ward and Parker all died that day.
Speaking after Parker's murder, WDBJ7 Anchor Chris Hurst spoke of the bright future the young journalist had.
He said at the time: "I am just saddened and upset that I selfishly and the rest of this community will not be able to see all of the other stories and all of the extra work that she was going to be able to produce while she was here at this station because she had big ideas and big plans and I have no doubt in my mind that she was going to be able to do all of them."
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