TV Reporter & Photographer Shot to Death on Live TV

He reportedly did not take the firing well and police had to be called when he was dismissed.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said a suspect has been identified and is believed to be a disgruntled employee of the TV station.

According to the Guardian, Flanigan was told to seek medical attention by the TV station in 2012 after repeatedly disturbing colleagues with aggressive behavior.

WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward died in the shooting. He says they did not know her condition at first but feared the worst when they didn’t hear from her.

TV reporter Alison Parker, left, during an interview on tourism at a water park before she was shot and killed.

Mike Morgan, WDBJ spokesman, said Ward was the station’s “go-to-guy”.

Flanagan had worked as a reporter at WDBJ for about a year using the on- air pseudonym Bryce Williams. Flanigan apparently posted graphic videos of the attack and the moments preceding it on his Twitter account, which has since been suspended.

Wednesday’s fatal shooting of two television journalists in Virginia stands out for the real-time manner in which the alleged gunman, Vester Lee Flanagan II, chronicled his attack and explained his reasons on social media. The camera then drops to the ground and the broadcast cuts back to the anchor desk.

Chris Hurst, an anchor at WDBJ7, tweeted that he and Parker were engaged, and mourned the “most radiant woman I ever met”. “We didn’t share this publicly, but @AParkerWDBJ7 and I were very much in love”.

In an exclusive statement to ET, the family of Parker said, “Today we received news that no family should ever hear”.

ABC News said he also expressed admiration for the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, and said he also was influenced by Seung-Hui Cho, the student who carried out a mass killing at Virginia Tech University in April 2007.

WDBJ is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and serves the southwest and central part of the state. The shopping mall where the incident happened is just off Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, about 25 miles southeast of Roanoke.