#bryce williams

‘Oh my god’: Live TV captured 15 shots, dropped camera, and screams as reporter, cameraman killed

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were shot to death during a live television interview Wednesday by a gunman who recorded himself carrying out the killings and posted the video on social media after fleeing the scene.

Authorities identified the suspect as a journalist who had been fired from the station earlier this year. Hours later and hundreds of kilometres away, he crashed a vehicle and troopers found him suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He died at a hospital later Wednesday, authorities said.

The suspect was identified as Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, of Roanoke, by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. Flanagan appeared on WDBJ as Bryce Williams.

Jeffrey Marks, WDBJ’s president and general manager, said Flanagan had to be escorted by police out of the station when he was fired. Marks described him as “an unhappy man” and “difficult to work with,” always “looking out for people to say things he could take offence to.”

“Eventually after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. He did not take that well,” Marks explained.

Photos: Twitter & Andrew Barr/NP