Posted on 08/26/2015 12:15:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Gunman in Shooting of Virginia TV Reporter, Photographer Grew Up in Oakland, Graduated from San Francisco State
An Oakland Hills neighbor said that Vester Flanagan was "demure" as a child.
The man accused of killing a television reporter and photographer during a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday had worked in the news industry on and off for two decades, including at jobs in the Bay Area and Florida.
Vester Flanagan II, who used the name Bryce Williams professionally, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following the attack. Within hours of the shooting, a portrait had emerged of an anchor, reporter and producer who was talented but angry and volatile.
The Northern California native was described as a disgruntled employee who WDBJ7 General Manager Jeff Marks said had been let go from the station and escorted out by police in 2013 after "many incidents of his anger coming to the fore." Still, one former neighbor from Oakland Hills recalled him being "demure" and "well-spoken." Authorities say Flanagan opened fire on two former colleagues from Roanoke CBS station WDBJ7 at close range during an interview early Wednesday, killing reporter Alison Park, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, and sending a local Chamber of Commerce official to the hospital.
Marks said Flanagan, who was employed at the station from March 2012 to February 2013, was an “unhappy man” who “quickly gathered a reputation somewhat of being difficult to work with.”
"He was sort of looking out for people to say things that he could take offense to," Marks said on his station's broadcast. "And eventually after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. And he did not take that well."
Flanagan had also filed several Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints about what he perceived as racism in the workplace.
Flanagan grew up in Oakland and graduated from Skyline High School. He interned at KPIX in San Francisco from 1993 to 1995, the television station confirmed. His LinkedIn profile has now been taken down, as have his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1995 with a degree in radio and TV, the university confirmed. He also listed on LinkedIn that he worked at PG&E as a customer service representative from 2001 to 2002. He went on to work at stations in Texas and Georgia, before landing a job as a weekend anchor and reporter at NBC affiliate WTWC in Tallahassee, Florida, according to a bio published in 2012. He worked as a reporter, anchor and producer for the weekend newscast at a North Carolina station and later joined WDBJ7 in 2012, the bio said.
Don Shafer, who hired Flanagan at WTWC in 1999, described troubling behavior during the suspected gunman's short time in Florida.
“He was a good on-air performer, a pretty good reporter and then things started getting a little strange with him,” Shafer, now news director at XETV-TV in San Diego, said in an interview with his current station. “He threatened to punch people out and was kind of running fairly rough-shot over other people in the newsroom.” Shafer said Flanagan was terminated from his contract for bizarre behavior in 2000. Soon after, Flanagan sued the station for racial discrimination.
“He was pretty difficult to work with,” Shafer said.
Flanagan appeared to turn to social media with claims of racism after the shooting, airing grievances about his colleagues and referencing a discrimination claim against his latest employer. Jarring first-person video of the attack was posted to the social media accounts, which were quickly suspended. ABC News also reported that it received a 23-page document via fax that purported to be from the suspect.
At least one longtime acquaintance of the suspect, however, said he was shocked by the news and portrayal that emerged. Flanagan's former neighbor Virgil Barker, who lives across the street from where Flanagan grew up in the Oakland Hills and later attended Skyline High School, said he was "devastated" to hear about the tragedy on television early Wednesday morning. He described a young Flanagan as "demure," "personable" and "well spoken."
"It's not like he's a monster," Barker said in an interview with NBC Bay Area. "It's just one of things where he must have snapped."
Barker said Flanagan's late mother was a school teacher and his dad, who now lives in Vallejo, California, was a salesman. His two sisters were all college-educated and became professionals, Barker said. "He came from a nice home, and had a nice family."
The on-air shooting marked the first time since 2007 that a journalist in the United States had been killed on the job or because of their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The last slaying was the death of Oakland Post's Chauncey Bailey that year, as was reported by the Poynter Institute.
Ping
media incite race war, now they’re in the firing range
college grads aren’t what they used to be
Queers often "act out" in violent ways when they get angry. More accurately would be to say the "overreact." Way way way overreact.
Maybe we should make it about how to recognize the symptoms of a dangerous, deranged person - paranoia, homosexuality to name two.
Not a monster? BS. He is or was a monster and the only way to deal with monsters is hot lead or cold steel.
Is that confirmed?
So he was a “Hillside Black” who looked down on all the Black trash that inhabits the “flatlands” below. East Oakland is the part of the city that gives it it’s place on the list of the country’s most violence prone. Interesting sidelight, Jerry Brown’s personal residence is up there too.
The suspect, who said he was a gay, black man, claimed in the alleged manifesto that he has experienced racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work from both black men and white females.
People just don’t “snap” as somebody is quoted.
This subhuman had built up so much anger over his miserable existence that it was inevitable he would blow sooner or later.
All he needed was an “excuse”. Dylan Ryder was his “excuse”.
We’re supposed to believe that?
Where did that little tidbit come from?........................
"Flanagan wrote that he suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work, because he was a gay black man. "
Yes.
that ‘little tidbit’ame from Flanagan himself
Can we trust anything he says?
Oh, doesn't count?
Prayers for the victims.
“It’s not like he’s a monster,” Barker said in an interview with NBC Bay Area.”
Yeah I guess one man’s affable coworker is another’s monster but so be it today. Barker is an ass.
Wait a minute, hold the horses here. He is in a protected group which trumps all: Fag Black.
So, he was a homosexual black man, grew up in Oakland, liberal educated in SF, had a chip on his shoulder the size of a cinder block, and couldn’t hold a job more than a year or two, and obviously had ‘anger management problems’.........................What could possibly go wrong?.........................
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