A television news reporter and a cameraman have been shot dead during a live broadcast from an American shopping mall by a disgruntled former colleague who then posted video of their murders on Facebook and Twitter.
Vester Flanagan, who appeared on air under the pseudonym Bryce Williams, filmed himself pointing a gun at Alison Parker, 24, as she conducted an interview on the shore of Smith Mountain Lake in West Virginia.
He was later reported to have shot himself after being cornered by police but was said to be still alive, in a critical condition.
Videos posted on Flanagan’s social media accounts show him firing at least 15 shots, killing both Parker and a cameraman, Adam Ward.
Ward himself was initially facing away from the gunman, filming a panning shot across the water, but turned back to capture some of the incident live.
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Shot himself, his camera falls to the ground, giving viewers a fleeting glimpse of the killer as Ms Parker screams.
Television station WDBJ, a CBS affiliate, cut back to its studio, where Kimberly McBroom, a news anchor, told viewers: “Okay, not sure what happened there, we will of course let you know as soon as we find out what those sounds were from.”
Later the station reported that both of its employees had been killed. Ward, 27, was described by the station as a photographer who had graduated from Virginia Tech, the college where a gunman shot and killed 32 people in 2007.
As police reportedly chased the suspect north along the I-81 highway, Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor, told a local radio station that the shooter was known to be a disgruntled former employee of the TV station.
“This is not a case of terrorism. It is a criminal case,” he said.
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Several hours after the killing, with the police having yet to stop the suspect, Williams posted a series of clips on his Twitter feed and made it clear that he had had run-ins with both the reporter and the cameraman.
“Alison made racist comments,” he wrote, complaining that she had still been hired even though he had made a formal complaint.
He added: “Adam went to hr [human resources] on me after working with me one time!!!”
The gunman was thought to have left a “manifesto” before committing the murders. ABC News said it recieved a 23-page fax from Flanagan and turned it over to authorities.
Ms Parker, from the city of Martinsville, Virginia, was said to have been interviewing Vicki Gardner, the head of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce. Barb Nocera from the chamber of commerce told the Roanoke Times that she had been shot in the back and was in surgery.
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It was reported that Mr Ward’s fiancée was in the control room in the TV channel’s studio and saw the events unfold.
In another post on Twitter, Chris Hurst, a news anchor for the channel, who was Ms Parker’s boyfriend, said that they had just celebrated her 24th birthday.
He said that the couple “didn’t share this publicly” but they had just moved in together and were planning to get married. “I am numb,” he said. “We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives.
“She was the most radiant woman I ever met. And for some reason she loved me back. She loved her family, her parents and her brother. She worked with Adam every day. They were a team. I am heartbroken for his fiancée.”