We’re going to close out our live coverage of the aftermath of the Moneta, Virginia shooting with a summary of the day’s developments.
- Local news station WDBJ7 and the city of Roanoke continued to mourn reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, who were shot dead by a former colleague during a Wednesday morning live broadcast. Anchors stifled tears as they spoke of the victims and held a moment of silence.
- Jeff Marks, WDBJ7’s general manager, said that the station had made it mandatory that Vester Lee Flanagan II, the eventual gunman, seek help for “performance issues”
- Marks added that at the time the station did not tell Flanagan he had mental health issues, and that he was “absolutely certain” that the discrimination alleged by Flanagan II had never occurred.
- Andy Parker, the father of the murdered reporter, vowed to do “whatever it takes to get gun legislation, to shame people, to shame legislators”. Through tears, he promised: “this is not the last you’ve heard from me, this is something that is Alison’s legacy.”
- Investigators found that Flanagan, 41, passed a background check and bought his Glock pistol legally about two months ago. They also found a wig, sunglasses, a shawl and extra license plates in the killer’s rented car, and civilians recalled erratic and alarming behavior from Flanagan after 2014. He died on Wednesday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound received after fleeing police.
- A third victim shot, interviewee Vicki Gardner, is recovering in hospital where she has had surgery. Her condition was upgraded to “good”.
- Tributes have been left outside the station’s headquarters, including piles of balloons and flowers and Virginia Tech merchandise, the college team Ward supported. Vigils are planned for the afternoon and evening.
Andy Parker, father of WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, has echoed calls from relatives in other recent shootings by demanding lawmakers put aside worries and write sensible gun control laws.
“Look, I’m for the second amendment [the right to bear arms], but there has to be a way to force politicians that are cowards and in the pockets of the NRA to come to grips and make sense, have sensible laws so that crazy people can’t get guns,” Parker told CNN on Thursday.
“It can’t be that hard. And yet, politicians from the local level to the state level to the national level, they sidestep the issue. They kick the can down the road.”
Parker also gave a long and emotional video interview to the Associated Press.
Flanagan continued to act strangely and aggressively after his unwilling departure from WDBJ, the Associated Press reports.
On one occasion he sent a long, furious letter to a burger restaurant, venting his complaints about the service.
Heather Fay, general manager at a Jack Brown’s beer and burger restaurant, said she received a 15- to 20-page letter from Flanagan three or four months ago criticizing the staff for telling customers to “have a nice day” instead of “thank you.”
“You could tell he was really angry,” Fay said. “It was bizarre, for sure.”
Fay, who said she threw the letter out shortly after receiving it, wrote down Flanagan’s name and a general description of his letter in her manager’s notebook. While she had never received anything like it before, she said there was no indication the letter’s author was contemplating a crime.
“I thought the guy had a lot of time on his hands,” Fay said.
On another occasion he alarmed a call center coworker with his erratic behavior.
After Flanagan was fired from WDBJ-TV in 2013, he began working at a UnitedHealthcare call center in Roanoke, where a former co-worker said she had a frightening encounter with him.
Michelle Kibodeaux, 46, said Flanagan was loud and boisterous, with a booming laugh. He often remarked on how quiet she was, she said.
“One day he was being quiet, and I told him, ‘You’re being quiet today. The shoe’s on the other foot.’ He said, ‘You don’t know me well enough to judge me.”’
Kibodeaux said she turned to walk away and Flanagan tried to grab her by the shoulder, but she ducked under his hand.
“He said, ‘Don’t you walk away from me. Don’t you turn your back on me,”’ she recalled.
“I said, ‘This is not going to happen.’ And he said, ‘Don’t you ever speak to me again,” Kibodeaux said.
Kibodeaux said she reported the encounter to the company. She said a company official told her she was overreacting and to give Flanagan space. “After that, I tried to steer clear. I only talked to him if I had to,” she said.
NBC has also acquired the list written by police about the contents of Flanagan’s rental car, including a gun, ammunition and 17 stamped letters.
Here's a copy of what police found inside Vester Flanagan's car from yesterday: pic.twitter.com/tymfsqCP4Y
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) August 27, 2015
“These journalists will rise above this,” Marks’ colleague says, asking that the press respect the privacy requested by Ward’s fiancee.
“Adam’s fiancee is obviously in tremendous grief. It is bad enough to find out that your fiancee is shot, it’s worse to be the producer of the show where that happens life. I would ask you on behalf of the family to respect their privacy, this is a really, really difficult time for her. She has family around her and she is really doing her best to cope.”
Finally Marks’ closes out the conference by asking everyone to remember Parker and Ward and to use this time for the community.
“This is less about a dead man who made two other people dead, except for the extent that there may be any lessons to learn. But that will take time … It’s just going to take time for us to heal. For all of us in the Roanoke area to deal with us.”
“I just for a moment want to remember them with fondness and appreciation for the people they were and what they meant to us as a news organization.”
Updated
Jeff Marks of WDBJ7 talks about yesterday's killings on msnbc pic.twitter.com/tEzxFUiSu3
— Paul Owen (@PaulTOwen) August 27, 2015
WDBJ7 manager: Flanagan had 'performance issues'
Marks is again asked about how the station vetted Flanagan when he sought to work at WDBJ7. He repeats that the station received positive comments from Flanagan’s references.
I think anybody can make positive references happen if they try hard enough, so we exhausted what we could with that.
He then says that the news management team then screened him for his writing and on-air ability. “I don’t think he was the strongest applicant we’ve ever had but he passed muster.”
Marks then answers a question about what Flanagan was told in relation to seeing someone for counseling. “I think he had a number of issues that caused us to think that the EAP would be appropriate. I don’t think we identified that he had mental health issues, we identified that he had performance issues.”
We didn’t say you have mental health issues, I believe we said you have performance issues with a colleague and for that we want you to get some outside help.
He says the problematic “behavior and performance issues” were “anger” and an inability to work with some coworkers.
Updated
Marks’ colleague says that she does not believe Parker and Ward knew for long about the danger presented by Flanagan.
She says that in general, reporters tend not to mind curious pedestrians, and that Ward’s back was turned to the shooter. Parker’s reaction in the videos suggests she knew only at the last moment, her supervisor says.
WDBJ7 manager: 'harassment in gunman's imagination'
Marks now defends his station’s record, saying: “We do not tolerate any attitude of illegal discrimination, harassment, or anything that makes the workplace other than a safe place to work.
“We have terminated employees for violating that standard and we would again.”
He says he thinks the alleged harassment was in Flanagan’s “imagination”.
I am absolutely certain that nothing like that happened in this case and that it was in the imagination, and perhaps the preconception and pre-planned attitudes of the fellow in this case.
Asked about an alleged incident in which a photographer “berated” Flanagan, Marks says that, if something like that happened, it was “almost certainly in response to something [Flanagan] was doing. And I would defend the actions of every single person in this newsroom when he was here. I saw the way he behaved.”
Updated
Marks’ colleague says that she’s proud of her news team, and that they’re still struggling to grasp the weight of their loss.
Our meteorologist this morning found a candy wrapper that Adam Ward had always eaten, and had left somewhere – and it’s those kind of little things that are just kind of getting us right now.
She says a sports editor told her: “I lost it when I walked out and saw his car in the parking lot, and saw clothes in there.”
She says: “It’s not the big things that get to us, it’s the little things. But the performance of this staff has been incredible: they cry, they hug, and they get the job done.”
Updated
Marks says he’s proud of WDBJ7’s hiring record, and that he’s not yet prepared to say what went wrong with the station’s relationship with Flanagan, or with Flanagan personally.
He suggests perhaps the station, like any company, could simply have been more careful.
“Most of the time we are focused on the results of his actions yesterday,” Marks says, “the loss of Alison and Adam and our bond with the community, which has been so strong.”
Marks is asked about whether Flanagan was told by supervisors to seek counseling or some form of mental health assistance. “We made it mandatory that he seek help from our employee assistance program,” Marks says. “Many companies have them, they provide counseling and other services. “
He says Flanagan did so on “at least one occasion. He complied with what we asked him to do.”
Updated
Marks now describes how Flanagan was fired, an episode recounted in court documents obtained by the Guardian.
Police were called to the scene after Flanagan threatened to “make a stink” that would “be in the headlines”, and Flanagan angrily, slowly left the station once officers arrived.
Marks says that Flanagan never came back to the offices after that, and did not confront any staffers, although he later filed a complaint with the EEOC that was ultimately dismissed.
“No reasonable person would have taken any of the cited instances as discrimination or harassment,” Marks says. “That all ended two and a half years ago and we are still at a loss to figure out what happened to him in those two and a half years.”
Updated
Station manager Jeff Marks is speaking at the podium, thanking everyone for their time. Then a colleague explains why the staff is wearing ribbons: “Maroon represents Virginia Tech and the teal was just Alison’s favorite color.”
Marks then speaks about gunman Vester Flanagan’s “employment situation” with the station.
“Vester Flanagan was employed as a reporter between March 2012 and January 2013.”
He used the air name Bryce Williams, and Marks says that in their standard background checks and references they heard only positive things about him.
After warnings about his conduct, however, “only slight improvement was noted every time,” Marks says. Flanagan was placed on a final warning in December 2012 for failure to check ihs facts and generally poor news judgment.
In January 2013 Flanagan accused a photographer of making trouble for him by questioning his decision to go on private property in pursuit of a story, Marks says. Flanagan raised concerns with HR for perceived unfairness, and those concerns were investigated and found to be without merit.
Updated
The press conference has now begun.
A press conference in Roanoke is about to begin outside WDBJ7 headquarters, but the station has not said what exactly the conference will entail.
Presser scheduled for 3 p.m. at #WDBJ. Not sure what to expect. pic.twitter.com/gffZdH9W7X
— Amy Friedenberger (@AJFriedenberger) August 27, 2015
Alison Parker’s boyfriend has tweeted his thanks to supporters and asked for contributions to a scholarship set up in her honor.
Alison's family and I thank you for your support. She loved her college, JMU. Please donate to her scholarship fund http://t.co/DlL6gLRVzf
— Chris Hurst (@chrishurstwdbj) August 27, 2015
She also was about to perform the tango for a #rke celebrity dancing event. You can donate for her too. http://t.co/ghSW8to1fj
— Chris Hurst (@chrishurstwdbj) August 27, 2015
Wednesday’s shooting differs slightly from violent tragedies of the past, a prominent advocate for gun control has told my colleagues Dan Roberts and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington.
“We got a small glimpse into the horror of what a shooting is like with what happened,” Colin Goddard, a senior policy advocate for Everytown for Gun Safety, told the Guardian.
“When you get a three-second video of someone actually pointing a gun at somebody else, you hear those gunshots, and you hear the screams, you can actually feel how horrifying and terrifying those events are.”
Goddard said while he did not wish to give notoriety to the killer, Vester Flanagan II, his video encapsulated the daily reality that gun control groups are trying to highlight across the country.
“America does not have a monopoly on disgruntled employees or people suffering mental illness, but what is unique to America is that we give easy access to firearms,” he said.
Goddard is himself a survivor of the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech, the deadliest gun massacre by a single perpetrator in US history.
You can read the full story here.
Despite national revulsion at the double murder in Virginia on Wednesday, gun reform campaigners are as far as ever from their goals, my colleagues Dan Roberts and Sabrina Siddiqui report from Washington.
National reform efforts, first championed by Barack Obama and more recently by Democratic presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton, have focused on passing legislation to close loopholes in the system of background checks required to buy a gun.
Even proposed legislation on enhancing background checks, which fell five senators short of the 60 needed to proceed in Congress two years ago, is struggling to gain momentum. One of its original sponsors, Republican Pat Toomey, recently played down reports that the bill could be reintroduced and did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Instead, the NRA has swung behind a much watered-down bill suggested by Texas Republican John Cornyn that would merely encourage states to send more information on mental illness to a national database.
The proposed legislation is opposed by many gun reform groups as an empty distraction, but a version of it has recently been supported by New York Democrat Chuck Schumer.
On the local level, too, efforts to reform the laws have been stymied, they continue.
Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, himself a gun owner and gun control advocate, sought a package of gun control measures in Virginia earlier this year, including a renewal of a monthly limit on handgun purchases, closing a loophole that allows individuals to purchase firearms at gun shows without undergoing a background check, and strengthening laws that would bar people convicted of domestic violence offences from accessing a gun.
But the Republican-controlled state legislature in January blocked any new gun laws from clearing even a senate committee, choosing instead to advance bills that loosened certain restrictions on firearms.
You can read their full take on the story here.
Summary
- Local news station WDBJ7 and the city of Roanoke, Virginia, continued to mourn reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, who were shot dead by a former colleague during a Wednesday morning live broadcast. Anchors stifled tears as they spoke of the victims and held a moment of silence.
- Andy Parker, the father of the murdered reporter, vowed to do “whatever it takes to get gun legislation, to shame people, to shame legislators”. Through tears, he promised: “this is not the last you’ve heard from me, this is something that is Alison’s legacy.”
- Investigators found that Vester Lee Flanagan II, the 41-year-old gunman, passed a background check and bought his Glock pistol legally about two months ago. They also found a wig, sunglasses, a shawl and extra license plates in the killer’s rented car. Flanagan died on Wednesday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound received after fleeing police.
- A third victim shot, interviewee Vicki Gardner, is recovering in hospital where she has had surgery. Her condition was upgraded to “good”.
- Reporter Chris Hurst, the boyfriend of Parker, appeared on the WDBJ7 morning show to announce he would take a short break from his role in order to grieve.
- Tributes have been left outside the station’s headquarters, including piles of balloons and flowers and Virginia Tech merchandise, the college team Ward supported. Vigils are planned for the afternoon and evening.
- Some newspapers in the US and the UK have been criticised for the decision to print images of the shooting on their front pages, including shots from the killer’s own video.
Updated
Residents of several southern states with conservative bents searched more for “gun shop” than “gun control” in the hours after the shooting in Virginia yesterday, according to Google research.
The top questions around the country include telling clues about American ambivalence around guns – they include “why is gun control bad,” “why doesn’t gun control work,” and “why is gun control good?”
#guncontrol or "gun shop"? Which was more searched in each state in the 12 hours after the #VirginiaShooting pic.twitter.com/rtmLh9wpKF
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) August 27, 2015
You can explore more of Google’s search data on guns and gun control here.
Police identified Vester Flanagan as a person of interest in the on-air shootings of three people based on a text to a friend, the AP reports.
Investigators identified Flanagan “as a person of interest based on a text message sent to a friend making reference to having done something stupid,” according to a search warrant request quoted by the AP.
Flanagan’s first name is spelled several different ways in the document. Police said they put out a lookout for Flanagan and the car was spotted in Fauquier County.
“When troopers attempted to stop the vehicle, the subject operating the vehicle failed to yield and was observed to place an object to his head,” police wrote.
Flanagan shot himself and died at about 1.30pm after police took him into custody and transported him to Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Updated
Police found a wig, sunglasses and extra license plates in Vester Flanagan II’s rental car, according to the Associated Press, which reports new details of the investigation into the gunman’s life.
Inside Flanagan’s rented silver Chevrolet Sonic sedan, police found three extra plates, a wig, sunglasses, a shawl, an umbrella and a black hat, according to the AP. He was also carrying the Glock pistol used to kill Alison Parker and Adam Ward, as well as magazines and ammunition, a white iPhone, letters, notes, cards and a to-do list.
The killer’s videos “expose the paradox of reality TV – that people on television are not real to the audience at all,” writes the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones, reflecting on the surreal horror of the videos posted online by Vester Flanagan II.
The way Flanagan focuses on his gun revealed the madness of America’s gun laws because it shows the infantile and pathetic relationship the killer appears to have with his weapon. How can it make sense to give guns so readily to troubled individuals?
What did the killer expect viewers to get from watching his video? The horrible conclusion has to be that he expected empathy. Surely, that is not possible. The person who you care about when seeing this is unambiguously his victim. This is, viewed with any humanity at all, a harrowing view of the evil of killing another person. I watched it once. I can’t look again at Alison Parker’s realization of her plight.
The sense that we somehow have a right to see this, the decision of many media outlets to screen it, has a lot to do with the television trappings of this crime. Because part of the attack was seen and heard live on air, because the victims and the perpetrator all worked for the same TV station, there’s something stagey about it all.
Sadly people so enjoy true life crime stories and this one has a hokey TV setting that recalls many fictional plots of films and TV programs.
You can read the full piece here.
The morning news crew from Virginia TV station WDBJ7 hold a moment of silence for two of their journalists killed yesterday during a live broadcast. The news anchor, holding back tears, says staff will never forget the tragedy that unfolded, and that ‘we will heal from this.’ Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were shot and killed by Vester Flanagan II, a former employee of the station.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump dismissed calls for gun control measures on Thursday, telling CNN: “This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem.”
“It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people,” the billionaire said. “It’s just too bad we couldn’t fix these things beforehand.”
Like other Republican candidates, Trump expressed virtually unqualified support for the second amendment right to bear arms. He said that the gunman, Vester Flanagan II, was a “very sick man” and that mental illness is a “massive problem” around the country.
“In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized,” Trump said.
“At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean the people close to him should have seen it.”
Without specifics, he said there are “so many things that can be done” to improve mental health issues. He did, however, admit difficulties to addressing the issue.
“What are you going to do? Put him in jail for the rest of his life because he looks a little off?” Trump said. “It’s too bad that we can’t figure out beforehand, but it’s a pretty tough thing to do.”
In contrast, Democratic leaders including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have called for more gun control measures such as expanded background checks.
WDBJ7 opened their early morning news show with a tribute to reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, who were killed yesterday by gunman Vester Lee Flanagan II, a former employee of the station.
Melissa Ott, the fiancee of shooting victim Adam Ward, has asked for privacy, her WDBJ7 colleague Nadine Maeser tweeted on Thursday morning.
“A lot of people are asking to speak [with] Adam’s fiancee, Melissa,” Maeser wrote. “Melissa and her family are not ready. We ask you respect their privacy.”
Ott had planned to celebrate her last day as a producer with WDBJ7 on Wednesday, and coworkers had set out balloons and planned a party on the same morning that her fiance was shot dead while filming a broadcast. The couple was planning to move to Charlotte.
This AP photo perfectly summarizes the day for us. Please hug your loved ones today. pic.twitter.com/qFRazIMFOY
— WDBJ7 (@WDBJ7) August 27, 2015
Updated
A childhood friend of Vester Flanagan II has said the killer was “not a monster that I know of” and expressed shock at the murders.
Virgil Barker told the Associated Press from his home in Oakland: “I’ve never seen that side of him, never ever ever ever.”
“Of course I’m surprised. I’m devastated, I’m devastated right now.”
Flanagan grew up in the San Francisco area but had spent much of the last 15 years at various news stations around the south-eastern US, including in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. In a brief statement, a family friend offered condolences to the victims’ families on behalf of the family, without mentioning the gunman.
“Words cannot express the hurt that we feel for the victims,” the friend said.
Killer passed background check and bought gun legally, says ATF
Vester Flanagan II passed a background check and bought the murder weapon of Wednesday’s shooting legally, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has told the Roanoke Times.
“I have no indication that anything was done illegally or improperly, or any shortcuts were made,” ATF spokesperson Tom Faison said.
The gun was the same make and model as one of the two used by Seung-Hui Cho, a former Virginia Tech student who in 2007 killed 32 students and professors in a campus shooting spree, he said.
“He could be as mentally ill as the day is long,” Faison said, “but unless someone has been legally adjudicated as such, they can purchase a firearm.”
It remains unknown to what extent Flanagan struggled with mental illness, if at all; when he worked at WDBJ7, a supervisor told him he should seek help and he showed a pattern of anger-related problems that eventually contributed to his firing from the station.
Updated
Victim's father calls for gun control
Andy Parker, father of killed reporter Alison Parker, has made an emotional appeal for greater gun control, vowing: “This is not the last you’ve heard from me.”
“Mark my words,” Parker told Fox News in an interview. “I’m going to do something.”
Whatever it takes to get gun legislation, to shame people, to shame legislators into doing something about closing loopholes in background checks and making sure crazy people don’t get guns.
He criticized the media for failing to persist on stories of gun violence: “The problem that you guys have, and I know it’s the news business, and so this is a big story but next week it isn’t going to be a story anymore. And everybody’s going to forget it.”
Parker added that on Wednesday he spoke with Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, who had pledged to support a campaign for greater gun control. “He said: ‘You go, I’m right there with you.’
“So this is not the last you’ve heard from me, this is something that is Alison’s legacy that I want to make happen.”
Stifling tears and occasionally pausing to collect himself, Parker talked about his daughter’s promise and exuberance. “She only turned 24 a week ago, yet she lived a great life,” he said. “She loved what she did. She loved the people that she worked with.”
She was happy with her place in life. So you know we can only take some solace in the fact that she had a wonderful life.
“She was extremely happy, and she loved this guy with all her heart,” he added, gesturing toward her boyfriend, Chris Hurst.
“And that’s the toughest thing for me, that she, everybody that she touched loved her and she loved everybody back. And, you know, I’m not going to let this issue drop.”
Updated
Chris Hurst, the boyfriend of shooting victim Alison Parker and a reporter with her at WBDJ, recounted this morning how he met Parker, and talked about their final hours together.
Outside the station Hurst told reporters that they met at a Christmas party for the station last year and had their first date on New Year’s Day. He said that he had made scrambled eggs and a smoothie for Parker early Wednesday before her morning shift, and had packed her lunch.
I’d never done that before for any woman, for anyone, but I wanted to do it for Alison because I loved her so much and I just took so much joy in something so minor as cutting strawberries for her.
Hurst said they would text each other as they worked opposite shifts, Parker in the morning, he at night.
Her last message to him was: “Good night sweet boy.”
It’s the last that I ever heard from her. I saw it before I went to sleep. And then a few hours later I woke up to some calls telling me to come to the station.
With his colleagues on-air, Hurst spoke about how Parker had been devoted to reporting a segment about families struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. “We both agreed wouldn’t that just be the worst, to lose the one you love, your spouse, your one and only.”
To lose the one you love and who loves you back, unconditionally, even by chance, it is a pain that is very real to me right now, And I can understand why she was so fixated on telling that story. That emotion is an emotion that we need to share to connect us all.
Hurst has said he will take an indefinite leave from work at the Roanoke, Virginia, station.
Updated
WDBJ7 anchor Nadine Messer tweets her thanks for the outpouring of support for the station in the aftermath of its workers’ murders.
Africa, Sweden, the UK - everywhere and everyone is showing support for @WDBJ7 - THANK YOU! #WeStandWithWDBJ pic.twitter.com/AE7IhHvPYx
— Nadine Maeser (@nadine_maeser) August 27, 2015
Making more ribbons for family and friends of @WDBJ7 - join us as we wear turquoise and maroon to honor the A-team pic.twitter.com/sWERK61Lf0
— Nadine Maeser (@nadine_maeser) August 27, 2015
Outrage and horror followed Vester Flanagan’s posting videos of his crimes to social media feeds on Wednesday, and although Twitter and Facebook were quick to shut down accounts, users have complained that autoplay made them unwilling and unwitting witnesses to the murders.
Reposted copies of the videos quickly seeped into more user feeds, my colleague Samuel Gibbs reports.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many other social media services and sites have set videos within people’s feeds to automatically play by default. The autoplay feature, intended to make inoffensive content more engaging, is now forcing people to watch videos that they do not want to and would not watch given the choice.
Analysts have suggested that the reason why autoplay on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter exists is to aid advertising. But autoplay videos, even when showing content that isn’t offensive, consume user’s mobile data, can slow down their smartphones and consume battery life unnecessarily – the biggest pain point of the modern smartphone user.
Now users are calling for autoplay to be made an opt-in, not an opt-out feature that forces users to search through settings screens. Users argue that the downsides of having autoplay active by default are just too big to justify having it automatically turned on for all users.
You can read the full story here.
Summary
I’m handing over to my colleague Alan Yuhas in New York. Here’s a summary of what has happened in the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting of journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward.
- WDBJ-TV’s ‘Mornin’’ show with anchor Kim McBroom has been on air for an emotional show this morning, remembering their colleagues who were killed as they filmed a live segment on Wednesday morning.
- Presenters held back tears as they discussed their colleagues on air, with anchor Chris Hurst, the boyfriend of Parker, appearing on the show to announce he would take a short break from his role, in order to grieve.
- Vicki Gardner, from Smith Mountain Lake chamber of commerce who was shot as she interviewed by Parker, is recovering in hospital where her condition is said to be “good”.
- Tributes have been left outside the station’s headquarters, including piles of balloons and flowers and Virginia Tech merchandise, the college team Ward supported.
- WDBJ’s general manager Jeffrey Marks has told NBC it was his newsroom staff who first identified killer Vester Lee Flanagan after seeing an image of him in the shot taken by Ward’s camera as he fell to the ground.
- Andy Parker, the father of reporter Alison, has said he will make it his “mission” to campaign for stricter gun control in memory of his daughter.
- Newspapers in both the US and the UK have been criticised on social media for the decision of some to print screengrabs of the shooting on their front pages, including shots from the killer’s own video.
- Journalists from across the US and worldwide have been posting their own tributes, with the hashtag #WeStandWithWDBJ
WDBJ’s general manager Jeffrey Marks has spoken of the moment the newsroom realised former colleague Vester Flanagan had killed the two journalists.
He told TODAY in a live interview the station’s chief photographer had walked over to him. “He said: ‘You have to see this,’” Marks said.
Staff gathered around a freeze-framed picture captured on Adam Ward’s camera as he fell to the ground, where his killer could seen looking into the lens, holding his gun.
“Everybody who was gathered around it said, ‘That’s Vester’. And I wasn’t sure. They were,” Marks told NBC.
Station immediately informed police about Flanagan’s bitter history with the station and he become the prime suspect.
Police identified a hire car that Flanagan had rented on the Interstate 66 around four hours later, and after a chase, the former TV reporter drove off the road and shot himself. He died later in hospital.
On Fox News overnight, Alison Parker’s father Andy had some tough words for the opponents of stricter gun control, and vowed he would campaign for change in memory of his daughter.
I’m not going to let this issue drop. We’ve got to do something about crazy people getting guns.
I know it’s a big story now, but next week it won’t be a story any more and everyone will forget it.
This isn’t the last you’ve heard of me. This is something which is Alison’s legacy which I want to make happen.
Updated
Police are keeping watch outside the station as locals visit to pay tribute, leaving flowers, balloons and candles.
Among the items left in memorial is a Virginia Tech sweater, because Ward was a former student and an enthusiastic fan of the team.
Updated
#WeStandWithWDBJ - journalists show solidarity
Journalists from around the world have being posting messages of solidarity using the hashtag #WeStandWithWDBJ
The hashtag was started by producer Vicki Chen, of the channel KVUE in Austin, Texas.
News crews: join us in saying #WeStandWithWDBJ. Proud & not afraid to be a journalist today. #TV #WDBJ @WDBJ7 @KVUE pic.twitter.com/um11SgrtBh
— Vicki Chen (@vchen24) August 26, 2015
“My photographer and I drove an hour outside of Austin for our story today, and at one point, stopped on the side of the road to shoot some video,” Chen told CNN.
“In that moment, in broad daylight, in a safe neighbourhood, I suddenly felt a pang of fear. Are we in danger? Is this safe? But just as quickly as the feeling came, others replaced it.
“Indignation, maybe? Pride? I thought, I can stand here and be scared, or I can stand here and be a journalist, which is what Alison Parker and Adam Ward did. In fact, it’s what thousands of journalists do every day: our jobs.”
The hashtag has gone viral, with messages of solidarity from stations across the nation.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire @WDBJ7 family this morning... #WeStandWithWDBJ @LeoHirsbrunner #wcvb pic.twitter.com/WzSTmnWIed
— Cindy Fitzgibbon (@Met_CindyFitz) August 27, 2015
From our station to yours... #WeStandWithWDBJ pic.twitter.com/uxf8df5QzS
— Brooke Katz (@WCNCBrooke) August 27, 2015
At all 3 Myrtle Beach stations, #WeStandWithWDBJ @WDBJ7 (top to bottom) @wpdeabc15 @WBTWNews13 @wmbfnews a.m. crews pic.twitter.com/yMZR2cjlzn
— Rusty Ray (@WBTW_RustyRay) August 27, 2015
From our morning news team to yours -- #WeStandWithWDBJ -- Our hearts are with you on this difficult morning. pic.twitter.com/0No8VsmW0d
— WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8) August 27, 2015
Fellow local reporter from competitor station @hectormejianews feet away from us. We're all family. #WeStandWithWDBJ pic.twitter.com/C6mXM64QGE
— Gitzel Puente (@gitzelpuenteTV) August 27, 2015
Thinking about Alison and Adam and their @WDBJ family this morning #WeStandWithWDBJ #WCVB pic.twitter.com/lPvYhHT3xC
— antoinette antonio (@antoinetteA) August 27, 2015
The team at the ‘Mornin’’ show on WDBJ-TV7 have been on air all morning, including speaking to a grief counsellor about their sense of loss after the death of their colleagues.
Balloons can still be seen hanging in the newsroom, which were to celebrate the last day of Ward’s fiancee Melissa Ott, a news producer who had a new job in North Carolina, where the photographer planned to join her. Her wedding dress had been delivered that day.
WDBJ-TV7 news morning anchor Kimberly McBroom, center, gets a hug from visiting anchor Steve Grant. Photograph: Steve Helber/AP
In Roanoke, Parker and Ward were hometown kids who became local celebrities, locals who saw them growing up had told Associated Press.
“They grew up in this area,” Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said. “They were part of our community.”
Parker was destined to be an anchor, one former colleague said.
“She was wise beyond her years. She was just dedicated. She lived and breathed news. You don’t find that every day,” said Ashley Talley, who was assistant news director at WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina, when she hired Parker straight after university.
Ward was described as a “happy-go-lucky guy” even during the early morning hours.
“He was the kind of guy you wanted to be around, especially at three in the morning,” said Jay Webb, a former meteorologist at WDBJ.
Updated
The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade has written about the media response to the Virginia shootings, and the social media outrage that followed.
It is fair to say that widespread public disgust at the publication of the pictures and the footage was matched by widespread public accessing of the same images. Many hundreds of thousands of people bought the newspapers that published the photographs... and will do again tomorrow.
I am hesitant to be overly critical of editors who went further than I might have done. My taste is not their taste. And their audiences’ taste may not be mine either.
The BBC, which along with the Guardian, the Daily Express and the Independent, opted not to publish screengrabs of the moment of the shooting, said it would not show certain front pages on its newspaper review segment because of their graphic nature.
BBC News Channel: Have decided not to show some of the front pages due to their graphic nature. #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/sSLbgT11yi
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) August 26, 2015
Silence on air for Alison Parker and Adam Ward
The TV station is holding a moment’s silence at 6.45am in northern Virginia, the time when its two journalists were shot live on air during a morning segment. Anchor Kim McBroom and Leo Hirsbrunner, the TV weatherman were both teary-eyed.
“We’re joining hands, it’s the only way to do it,” McBroom said.
Updated
The Telegraph has obtained video which is reportedly from inside Flanagan’s apartment, which has been raided by police.
Police reported that personal documents had been dumped in bins close to his apartment on Ordway Drive, which is less than a mile from the TV station. The Telegraph said police had used a ladder up to the balcony to access the third floor flat, fearing Flanagan might have booby-trapped his home.
Photos also showed the former journalist had posted pictures of himself on TV newscasts on his walls. His computer can be seen sat on a beige carpet, with the hard drive removed.
Updated
Third shooting victim 'getting better'
Tim Gardner, husband of shooting victim Vicki Gardner, has said his wife was improving in hospital after being shot by Flanagan. Her daughter told the Guardian on Wednesday that Gardner had lost a kidney and part of her large intestine.
Garner is the head of the Smith Mountain Lake chamber of commerce, and was being interviewed and filmed by Parker and Ward for a segment on the lake’s 50th anniversary when the shooting occurred live on air.
Her husband told WDBJ7:
The best thing you can do for Vicki, is go out and enjoy Smith Mountain Lake. We moved here 30 years ago because of Smith Mountain Lake, and we remain here because of it. Pray for her, certainly, but go out and enjoy the lake.
Updated
Chris Hurst, the WDBJ7 anchor and boyfriend of Alison Parker, is speaking live on the channel. Introducing him, McBroom told Hurst that he and Parker “were like Barbie and Ken just the perfect couple.”
Hurst said he has decided to take a break from his job to mourn her loss.
He said:
You won’t be seeing me in my normal position for, well, who knows how long. Hopefully not too long because she would want me back, doing what we loved to do.”
He said the couple’s love for each other “burned white hot for only a short time”.
“It was the kind of love I was so privileged and lucky to have, and I want to tell people that even if it gets taken away from you, it exists.”
Describing his decision to immediately go public with their relationship, which they had not shared on air, he said:
I wanted to share the love she had for the station, for this job and for me, and her family and her friends as well. I decided that I was OK enough to do the only thing I know how to do, which is to communicate.
Hurst went on to discuss how Parker had been planning a series on hospice care, and said they had discussed in detail how it would feel to lose the person you love. “It is a pain that is very real for me now,” he said.
“We love you,” anchor Kimberly McBroom said as the segment ended. “I love you too,” Hurst replied. “And I’ll be back, we’ll be back.”
Updated
This is a statement from the family of Vester Lee Flanagan, who took his own life after shooting his two former colleagues. The family made no reference to him in their statement, only offering condolences.
Updated
WDBJ7's morning show back on air
WDBJ7 has started their live morning broadcast, the show Parker and Ward were working on yesterday when they were shot. It’s clearly an extremely emotional day for the team, especially anchor Kimberly McBroom who was on air as the live shooting came through.
“We come to you with heavy hearts,” she said.” Two of our own were shot during a live shot yesterday morning.”
Steve Grant, an anchor from sister station KYTV in Missouri, joined her on air, having come to the town specifically to assist the team. Several other reporters from sister channels have also come to Roanoke to pitch in.
Weatherman Leo Hirsbrunner was emotional as he did his segment. “I don’t even know how to do the weather today,” he said.
“Adam always came into the weather centre and he would say ‘hey, what’s the weather today?’ before his live shots with him and Alison. And I would say ‘hey, what do I know?’ And we’d all laugh and he goes on his way,” he said.
“He wasn’t here this morning, so that’s kind of a change there,” he said, his voice breaking.
As he finished, McBroom smiled and said: “Good job partner, we’re going to get through this together.”
A livestream from the channel is available in an earlier post on this liveblog.
Updated
Patrick Henry Community College and James Madison University have both set up scholarships in honour of Parker, a former student.
At PHCC, the Alison Bailey Parker Memorial Scholarship will be awarded on an annual basis for the media and production programme. Vice president Christopher Parker said:
Alison was a great example of what dedication and motivation can do in someone’s life. She made us all proud of her achievements and the way she carried herself through that success in life.
Ward, who graduated from Virginia Tech, is also set to have a scholarship set up in his name.
Updated
In sharp contrast, the local Roanoke Times paper concentrated on the grieving viewers of WDBJ7, and also posted smiling pictures of the two murdered journalists and injured victim, omitting any screengrabs from the gunman from their front page.
The paper described the town as being in a ‘state of shock’. Its website on Wednesday night included a screen grab of WDBJ’s broadcast of the attack, labeled with a viewer warning, but not the gunman’s own video.
Lee Wolverton, managing editor of the paper, told Associated Press: “We recognise how important this story is in the life of our community and have strived to deliver the same kind of fullness and context we seek in every story.”
Off to deliver a copy of tomorrow's paper to #WDBJ pic.twitter.com/Gh9O9SSfwc
— Amy Friedenberger (@AJFriedenberger) August 27, 2015
WDBJ7 said it would not show any video of the shooting again on its station.
“We are choosing not to run the video of that right now because, frankly, we don’t need to see it again. And our staff doesn’t need to see it again,” Jeffrey Marks, WDBJ7’s president and general manager, said on air. An estimated 40,000 viewers saw it unfold live.
“But we will do full reporting on it later,” he continued. “Our teams are working on it right now, through the tears.”
Updated
Newspapers in both the US and the UK have been criticised on social media for the decision of some to print screengrabs of the shooting on their front pages, including shots from the killer’s own video.
The New York Daily News headlined its reported ‘EXECUTED ON LIVE TV’ with pictures from Flanagan’s video which he had posted on social media.
Naval officer and TV personality Montel Williams posted on his Facebook page he would henceforth be boycotting the paper. “For a paper on stands on every corner in NY - kids don’t need to see this,” he said. “Everyone who works at NYDN lost the right to call themselves journalists - this is disgusting.”
I can't unsee tomorrow's @NYDailyNews cover. And neither can the children who pass by it at news stands on their way to school. Disgusting!!
— Kelly Nash (@KellyNash) August 27, 2015
I'm in New York. I won't be reading the Daily News tomorrow.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) August 27, 2015
In the UK, The Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Star all used screen-grabbed pictures from the killer’s video on their front pages.
Sad day for journalists today, bad day for journalism tomorrow, looking at front pages of many UK papers.
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) August 26, 2015
.@TheSun This disgusts me. Have you no respect? Gratuitous. Vile. Abhorrent. Any term of condemnation, apply it to how people feel about.
— Natalie McGarry MP (@NatalieMcGarry) August 26, 2015
The Guardian has chosen not to publish the video of the shooting or any stills from the gunman’s video.
This is Thursday’s UK front page.
Guardian front page, Thursday 27 August 2015: Government accused of war on BBC pic.twitter.com/JQfyxCAKLY
— The Guardian (@guardian) August 26, 2015
Updated
WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst spoke to reporters outside his TV station’s headquarters on Wednesday night.
He was in a nine-month relationship with reporter Alison Parker, and said he believed she would want him to speak publicly about their love.
Hurst says they were private people but he wants to share the scrapbook which Parker had given him to mark six months together as a way to celebrate their relationship.
“I am somewhat hesitant to show this in public but she, I believe, would want our love to be shared, because it was a love that was genuine, and a love that I hope everyone else gets to experience at least once in their life,” he said.
Matthew Teague reports for the Guardian from Roanoke, Virginia:
Erin Arnold, Vicki Gardner’s daughter, received a call from her father at her home in St. Augustine, Florida, that her mother had been shot and was in hospital.
Speaking to the Guardian on the plane to Roanoke, Arnold said her father had not panicked. “He’s stoic. He never gets hysterical. But to me it all still feels surreal,” she said.
On the leg of her journey from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Virginia, Arnold sat listening to two men describing the horror. Both had seen Flanagan’s video, and described it in detal. One held out his forefinger and thumb like a pistol, re-enacting the event. “I haven’t watched it,” Arnold told them. “That’s my mom. Vicki.”
Gardner had lost a kidney and part of her large intestine, she said. “I’m just grateful she’s alive. She’s 60 years old and still wakeboards. She still climbs up and paints the lighthouse. She’s incredible.”
As for guns, and whether the shooter should have been allowed to purchase one, Arnold just shook her head and said: “Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.”
At the WDBJ7 studio, reporters and cameramen wandered through the crowd in their parking lot, interviewing other journalists, being interviewed themselves. People they had never met before hugged the journalists, and took photos of them, which they then posted to their own social media accounts.
“They were there every morning with me,” said Pamela Cook, a longtime WDBJ7 viewer. “Maybe I didn’t know them super well, but they were like part of my family. They were like real people.”
Updated
Summary
Good morning. This is what we know so far about what happened yesterday and overnight after the shooting in Roanoke, Virginia.
- Two WDBJ7 news channel journalists were shot dead during a live news broadcast in Roanoke. A third victim, their interviewee, is in a stable condition in hospital.
- The family of Alison Parker, 24, the reporter who was killed, described her as
our bright, shining light … cruelly extinguished by yet another crazy person with a gun.
Her boyfriend, WDBJ7 anchor Chris Hurst, said the pair had not publicised their relationship but were deeply in love and had just moved into together.
We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives. We wanted to get married. We just celebrated her 24th birthday. She was the most radiant woman I ever met. And for some reason she loved me back.
Her colleagues called her a “rock star” who would take on any assignment and who had just finished recording a special investigation on child abuse.
- The second victim, cameraman Adam Ward, 27, was described as a “fine photojournalist” with an infectious smile. His fiancée, Melissa Ott, who worked as a producer in the WDBJ7 newsroom, was at work on Wednesday morning and saw the shooting unfold live on screen.
Robert Denton, his college professor at Virginia Tech, the school whose football team he adored, called him:
a delightful person. He worked hard - you could tell he loved what he was doing. He wasn’t afraid to pitch in and do whatever was necessary for the broadcast. He did whatever was needed with a smile and with grace.
- Colleagues and viewers have been paying tribute to the two journalists described by those who worked with or watched them as “like family”. The president of the WDBJ7 news channel, Jeffrey Marks, said he was at a loss as to why the young reporters had been targeted.
This is the worst day of my career. Worst day of all our careers. We’ve lost beloved colleagues. Why was I not targeted? Why was Kelly [Zuber, the news director] not targeted? We are the ones who actually put this guy out of a job.
Longtime viewer Pamela Cook told the Guardian’s Matthew Teague:
They were there every morning with me. Maybe I didn’t know them super well, but they were like part of my family. They were like real people.
- A third victim, who survived the shooting, underwent emergency surgery after a bullet hit her in the back. Vicki Gardner is reported to be in stable condition in hospital.
- The gunman, identified as Vester Lee Flanagan, later died after shooting himself. Flanagan, a former news reporter who was known on air as Bryce Williams, had been fired by WDBJ7 in 2013 and unsuccessfully tried to sue the station.
- Court papers seen by the Guardian claimed Flanagan had a history of aggressive behaviour at work and had been advised to seek medical help. He was reprimanded for “lashing out” at a colleague and for his “harsh language” and “aggressive body language”.
- A second memo detailing his termination records Flanagan as yelling: “I’m not leaving, you’re going to have to call the f###ing police [sic].” Officers later escorted him from the building.
- The memos were filed to a court in Roanoke, Virginia, as part of a civil racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by Flanagan against the station in March 2014, which the station denied. The case was dismissed.
- Relatives of Flanagan expressed their “deep sadness”, in a statement that made no reference to the killer:
Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with the victims’ families and the WBDJ7 news family.
- In tweets sent after the shooting, Flanagan accused Ward of having made a complaint against him and Parker of making racist comments, an allegation Marks dismissed as “just not believable”. He filmed the shooting and posted videos on Facebook and Twitter.
- Flanagan’s two handguns were bought legally in July this year from a gun shop in Roanoke.
- There has been criticism of the decision by some parts of the media – in the US and the UK – to publish videos and images of the shooting, including from a film made by the gunman and posted to Facebook by him. WDBJ7 said it would not run the broadcast clip of the shooting again. The images appeared on several front pages.
- President Barack Obama said the shooting highlighted once again the need to address the issue of gun control:
It breaks my heart every time you read or hear about these kinds of incidents … [It is] one more argument for why we need to look at how we can reduce gun violence.
- Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she wished the incident would be “what it will hopefully finally take for us to act”.
- White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Congress had the power to act on the issue.
While there is no piece of legislation that will end all violence in this country, there are some common-sense things that only Congress can do that we know would have a tangible impact in reducing gun violence in this country.
- But Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson retorted “People are the problem, not so much guns”. GOP rival and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore went further:
Politicians were wrong today to go out there and begin to do the same old song about gun control when that is not the issue.
It’s infuriating because it’s diverting us away from what we can do to solve this problem and that is to identify people who are unstable.
