Vester Lee Flanagan Guns Down News Crew on Live TV, Live Tweets and Films himself doing so.
Update: The shooter filmed himself performing the act and uploaded the content to several social media accounts. It was shared thousands of times before Twitter deleted it. Twitter auto-plays the video.
Today would be a very good day to close twitter and come back later.
A crew from WDB17 were in the middle of a story on the Bridgewater Plaza Moneta when a gunman walked up and gunned them down.
Screen grab being shared on social media shows apparent black-clad gunman opening fire on @WDBJ7 crew in Moneta, Va. pic.twitter.com/sqW1C2NwQy
— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) August 26, 2015
How Alison Parker & Adam Ward should be remembered instead of the horrific video [via New York Daily News] pic.twitter.com/KoNjJOqr7k
— Shawn Reynolds (@ShawnRTV6) August 26, 2015
The cameraman and reporter both died at the scene. The cameraman was engaged to a producer at the station; it was her last day, they were about to move out of the area to take a new job. The reporter was in a relationship with an anchorman at the station.
The woman being interviewed was shot in the back as she fled and is undergoing surgery at the time of this writing.
Early reports are that there were a total of 5 casualties, although I haven’t been able to confirm this. The gunman is at large.
H/T to Scout Finch @ DailyKos.
The shooter’s name is Vester Lee Flanagan. His stage name was Bryce Williams. He filmed the shooting and uploaded a press dossier of himself to multiple facebook and twitter accounts, alongside the videos.
He also faxxed a 20+ page manifesto to the press.
This man is very, very media savvy. He knew exactly what to do.
Update 2:
He’s dead. He killed himself.
Update 3:
Maybe dead? Critical condition?