The gunman in the shooting deaths of two television journalists in
Virginia on Wednesday was a veteran anchorman with a history of
workplace grievances who had previously sued a Florida station alleging
discrimination because he was black.
While authorities said they
had not determined a motive, perceived racism appeared to be a factor in
the shootings, according to posts on social media attributed to the
shooter and a fax that ABC News said had been sent by the gunman.
Vester
Flanagan, 41, who went on the air under the name Bryce Williams, was a
former employee of WDBJ7 in Virginia, where both of the slain
journalists worked. He shot himself as police pursued him on a Virginia
highway hours after the shooting. Flanagan, who was African-American,
died later at a hospital, police said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the journalists, who were both white, were shot dead during a live television broadcast.
Hours
after the shooting, someone claiming to have filmed it posted video
online. The videos were posted to a Twitter account and on Facebook by a
man identifying himself as Bryce Williams.
The videos were
removed shortly afterward. In one video, a handgun was clearly visible
as the person filming approached the female reporter.
Producer had called him a 'monkey'
In
the posts on the Twitter feed, he accused one of the victims of "racist
comments," and noted that a complaint had been filed with a government
agency that enforces discrimination claims.
In a 23-page fax ABC
News said was sent two hours after the shooting, he cited as his tipping
point the racially motivated shooting that killed nine black
churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this summer.
Saying
he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying
at work, Flanagan described himself as "a human powder keg," the network
said.
Flanagan aired similar grievances in a 2000 lawsuit filed
in US federal court against a Florida station, WTWC-TV in Tallahassee.
In that suit, he said a producer had called him a "monkey," and he
accused a supervisor of calling black people lazy for not taking
advantage of college scholarship opportunities.
The Florida case was settled and dismissed, court records show.
One
of his former Florida colleagues remembered Flanagan as "quirky," but
said he never displayed behavior suggesting he would be capable of such a
violent crime.
"He had his idiosyncrasies, a little quirky
sometimes," said Michael Walker, the weekend producer at the Tallahassee
station when Flanagan was working as a weekend anchor. "It probably
wasn't any different than any other on-air personality."
Walker, who is also black, said that he had not experienced discrimination at the station.
Flanagan,
who accused the station of terminating his contract because he had
filed a report of racism with a state agency, said in the lawsuit he
suffered emotional distress and financial losses as a result of his
treatment at the station.
The NBC affiliate, which stopped
broadcasting newscasts in late 2000, said at the time of the lawsuit
that his contract was not renewed due to "corporate belt-tightening,"
according to an article in the Tallahassee Democrat at that time.
The
station confirmed Flanagan's employment for about one year and noted in
a statement that his discrimination complaint was dismissed by a
government agency and the lawsuit resolved.
Flanagan's 20-year
career in journalism included stints at local news stations in San
Francisco; Savannah, Georgia; and Midland, Texas, according to his
LinkedIn profile. It said he also worked briefly outside of journalism
as a customer service representative.
He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1995 with a degree in radio and television, the school confirmed.
According
to a Facebook page believed to belong to the suspect, he was originally
from Oakland, California, but most recently living in Roanoke,
Virginia, where WDBJ7 broadcasts.
There, he gained a reputation as
someone who was difficult to work with because of his anger, station
manager Jeff Marks said during a live broadcast.
"Vester was an
unhappy man," Marks said, adding that he had to be escorted out of the
building by police after he was terminated from the station in 2013.
"He did not take that well," he added.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Gunman in TV shooting had history of workplace issues
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