A startling picture is emerging of Vester Lee Flanagan, the US gunman who shot two former colleagues live on air, as a troubled journalist with a short fuse.
Flanagan, who used the on-air name of Bryce Williams, shot Alison Park, 24, a reporter for WDBJ7, and Adam Ward, 27, her cameraman, yesterday morning as they were filming a live segment for the station in Moneta, Virginia. Both were former colleagues.
It has since been revealed that the shooter had a chequered past that included complaints about being the victim of racism, a road rage incident, furious outbursts and a suggestion that he seek help for his temper.
He said the Charleston church shooting of nine black people by Dylann Roof in June had tipped him over the edge.
In a 23-page fax sent to the ABC newsroom, which he said was his suicide note to family and friends, the 41-year-old wrote: “Yes, it will sound like I’m angry ... I am. And I have every right to be. But when I leave this Earth, the only emotion I want to feel is peace…
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“The church shooting was the tipping point … but my anger has been building steadily … I’ve been a human powder keg for a while … just waiting to go BOOM!!!!”
Flanagan had worked in a number of roles in television, but never for very long, and former colleagues recalled numerous concerns about his behaviour and the standard of his work.
Don Shafer, news director at San Diego 6, hired and fired Flanagan in Florida.
He described Flanagan as a good on-air performer and a “pretty good reporter”, but said Flanagan became strange and he fired him for “odd behaviour”.
Kimberly Moore Wilmoth, a former colleague at the Florida station, recalled a time when Flanagan did a story on a spelling bee where he made a gaffe that made it sound like the winner would get a case of girl scouts. When he returned to work the next day somebody had stuck copies of the girl scout emblem on his computer.
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She said: “If he had only laughed we would have all been friends forever. But he didn’t laugh … he got mad. And that was when I realised he wasn’t part of the collegiality that exists in a newsroom and he removed himself from it.”
Dan Dennison, a former news director at WDBJ7, sent a note to senior staff and Flanagan after colleagues raised concerns. The note read: “Your behaviours continue to cause a great deal of friction with your co-workers”. He suggested that Flanagan’s behaviour was creating a hostile working environment and that he should seek medical advice.
Flanagan also made a string of complaints about alleged racism at former workplaces, including the appearance of a watermelon in the office which he said was tantamount to racism.
Jeff Marks, the general manager of WDBJ, said Flanagan was “looking for people to say things he could take offence to” and recalled calling police to escort him from the building when he fired him for being difficult to work with.
Flanagan filed a second complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), (his first after he was fired from San Diego 6 in 2000). In both cases the EEOC found no evidence of wrongdoing.
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Flanagan, the son of an NFL footballer who was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, shot himself while he was being pursued by police and died in hospital, but not before he uploaded his own first-person video of the killings. His Facebook and Twitter accounts were quickly suspended, but not before many saw it online.
He said that his bullets “had the victims’ initials on them” and claimed that he had been attacked by black men and white women and was victimised for being a gay black man.
Footage also emerged of Flanagan in a road rage incident when he was pulled up for driving at 100mph in the rain. The confrontation on July 6, happened just a few weeks before the shootings.
Andy Parker, Alison’s father, said that his grief was unbearable and it all felt like a dream. He likened Flanagan’s actions, especially filming the shooting, to that of Islamic State, known as Isil in the US.
He said: “It’s like showing those beheadings. I am not going to watch it. I can’t watch any news. All it would do is rip out my heart further than it already is.
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“Some journalists want to be right out there covering Isil. She did not want that. She was not keen on jumping into the middle of a firefight someplace.”
And while Flanagan’s career was pitted with complaints, difficulties and sackings, Alison Parker, 24, seemed to be on a trajectory for national news.
Colleagues said she had the makings of an anchor woman. Scott Nichols, news director at WCTI in Jacksonville, North Carolina, hired her in 2012 from a pool of 100 applicants.
He said: “She immediately stuck out. We all really liked her, and we knew we had to get her here … When you met her, you knew she was going places.”
Dozens gathered overnight at the WDBJ7 station in a vigil for the two killed journalists.
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Khiree Stewart, writing on the station’s news website, said: “The vigil was very touching. There were lots of tears and questions why.
“Several people left flowers, balloons, and cards here at the station. Many people said they never thought anything like this could happen.”
Thomas McCracken, a pastor of Community Church in Salem, helped organise the vigil. He told WDBJ7: “It’s tragic. I don’t really know what else. I just know that I want to do something. I want to help. Sometimes, you don’t know what do you, so you pray and you’re there.”
Gun control has once again been forced to the fore by the shooting, with Barack Obama calling for tougher laws.
The president said: “We’re willing to spend trillions of dollars to prevent terrorist activities, but we haven’t been willing so far at least to impose some commonsense gun safety measures.”