The gunman who killed two journalists on-air was ordered to seek mental health assistance or face termination from his past employer.
The documents, first reported by the Guardian, show several emails between Vester Flanagan, Dan Dennison, WDBJ-7 news director, and several senior colleagues at the station.
"'He was eventually told to contact employee assistance professionals at the company Health Advocate. 'This is a mandatory referral requiring your compliance,” Dennison told Flanagan on 30 July 2012. “Failure to comply will result in termination of employment.'"
"On Christmas Eve that year, Dennison emailed colleagues to say he had just warned Flanagan that he had one final chance to save his job. 'I’m not entirely sure where his head is at,' said Dennison. Flanagan was fired three months later."
“'On three separate occasions in the past month in the past month and a half you have behaved in a manner that has resulted in on or more of your co-workers feeling threatened or uncomfortable,' Dennison wrote in the memo, addressed to Bryce Williams."
Mr Flanagan was eventually fired from his position and was escorted from the newsroom's building by police. Nearly two years later Mr Flanagan would take the lives of two of his former WDBJ-7 coworkers.
In 2014, he filed racial and sexual discrimination lawsuits against the station. The case was eventually dismissed.
“Your Honor, I am not the monster here. I get along with my current co-workers... That sure doesn’t sound like the monster I was painted to be,” he wrote in the filing. However, employees at the station vehemently deny these claims.
The Independent has reached out to WDBJ Television for comment.
Everything we know about Vester Flanagan the gunman who killed two WDBJ journalists on-air
