Pursuing troopers found him suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, Virginia state police said.
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Vester Lee Flanagan, known professionally as Bryce Williams, allegedly killed his ex-colleagues Alison Parker and Adam Ward of WDBJ, a local TV station in Virginia, about 6.45am Wednesday (8.45pm AEST).
For a few bad seconds, the victims, oblivious to the danger, continued the interview with Vicky Gardner, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, until eight shots rang out.
A television reporter and cameraman were shot to death on the air during a live broadcast Wednesday morning from a shopping center in Virginia.
ABC News posted on Twitter that it received a 23-page fax from someone who says he is Bryce Williams.
A VIDEO appearing to show the shooting of two journalists during a live TV broadcast has been posted to online social media accounts, seemingly by the shooter himself. Ward, 27, recorded the shooting with his camera, even capturing an image of the gunman afterward, as his camera lay on the ground.
CNN affiliate WDBJ’s Alison Parker and Adam Ward were conducting an interview when the shootings happened.
Then shots were heard and both Parker and Gardner were recorded as screaming and ducking for cover. They said they did not know whether the shooting was racially motivated.
Marks said Flanagan, who is African-American, later filed complaints of racial discrimination at the station, but Marks said the complaints were unsubstantiated.
Flanagan, 41, was an “unhappy man”, according to WDBJ general manager Jeffrey Marks, who confirmed on the air that Flanagan had been employed by the station.
Overton says it will be a lengthy investigation because of the number of components to the incident. He said they had just moved in together and wanted to get married.
Marks said Ward was engaged to his producer, who was working at the station at the time of the shooting and saw the events unfold live.
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Parker’s boyfriend posted a touching tribute.as well, saying that she “was the most radiant woman I ever met’. She loved her family, her parents and her brother”, Hurst tweeted. “I didn’t see (a unsafe aspect) in his personality”. Ott was producing her final newscast at the station and the crew was celebrating her last day, according to WDBJ.
