The father of Alison Parker, the TV reporter who was shot dead during a live broadcast on Wednesday, issued a tearful call to America yesterday to tackle gun violence with tighter controls on firearms.
“How many Alisons are going to happen before we stop it?” said Andy Parker, 62, whose daughter was shot dead along with Adam Ward, a cameraman, by a former colleague who described himself as a “human powder keg waiting to go boom!”. They were filming a light news feature in a tranquil patch of southern Virginia at the time.
“How many more Newtowns are we going to have?” Mr Parker asked, referring to the massacre of 20 children and seven adults in the Sandy Hook school in Connecticut in 2012. “I’m not saying take away guns. I’m just saying let’s make it harder for people like this guy that killed Alison and Adam. Make it difficult for them to purchase a gun.”
Mr Parker, a former Broadway actor whose daughter texted him daily to ask his opinion of her latest story, said he was issuing a particular challenge to the American media. “This is one of your own,” he told CNN. “I know how this business works — it’s a great story for a couple of days and then it goes to the backburner and nothing happens. I’m going to promise the American people I’m not going to rest until something gets done here.”
His daughter, who celebrated her 24th birthday recently, was remembered by colleagues and former teachers as a talented journalist who seemed destined for a career in national news.
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She grew up in Martinsville, a small town near the border of North Carolina, the younger of two children in a family that loved the arts and outdoor pursuits. Her hobby was white-water kayaking; her fondest memory, she said in an introductory piece for WDBJ, her employer, was a horseback ride down the Grand Canyon, during which she and her family were abandoned by their guide and their steeds took off along the bank of the Colorado river.
Her boyfriend, Chris Hurst, a news anchor on WDBJ, a CBS affiliate, recalled seeing her at the office Christmas party last year. “She was wearing this gold-sequined dress. Everyone said she looked a little bit like Taylor Swift — she had this red lipstick on,” he said. “I stood in the corner and said: ‘Chris, you’ve got to do something or you are a fool’.”
They went on their first date a few days later. More recently, they moved in together, so that he could save money to buy an engagement ring. “She told me, and her parents told me last night, that she was the love of my life and I was the love of her life,” he said.
Her father said she had never wanted to cover war, or firefights, as some journalists do. He expressed disbelief at the manner of her death, and compared the killer’s video of the murders with those of Isis. “From what I know from law enforcement officials she didn’t suffer,” he said. “She led a happy life, but I just wish I could touch her soul right now.”