Virginia State Police officer ordered BBC reporter to delete video of Vester Flanagan crash scene

BBC journalist Franz Strasser has filmed through rubber bullets and tear gas in Rio de Janeiro and has at times been told by police to stop filming while on assignment.

But he had never been ordered to delete footage until Wednesday, after he and a fellow journalist came upon the scene on Interstate 66 where Vester Lee Flanagan crashed a car following a pursuit by Virginia State Police.

A trooper told Strasser that police would need to seize his camera because his footage could be evidence, but then ordered him to delete the footage. The trooper watched as the journalist deleted it, Strasser said in an interview Friday.

Strasser tweeted about the incident on Wednesday. Corinne Geller, the State Police spokeswoman, tweeted back that police would look into it because such actions would violate police policy. Geller said Friday that after seeing tweets about the incident State Police began an administrative investigation by its Professional Standards Unit that is ongoing.

Strasser has worked as a video journalist for BBC in Washington, D.C., for six years, covering features and breaking news across the United States.

He reported on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, covered the fatal shootings of children and adults in 2012 in Newtown, Conn., and flew to Ferguson, Mo., numerous times to cover of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown last year.

After the fatal shooting of Roanoke TV journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward on Wednesday, Strasser and BBC White House reporter Tara McKelvey began driving to Roanoke in a rental car.

They heard police were in pursuit of the shooter but decided they should continue to Roanoke. As they drove on I-66 west, Strasser noticed no oncoming traffic and then saw about a dozen police cars and a silver car in the ditch on the other side of the interstate.

“Police were just standing around … so it didn’t seem like an active situation,” he said. “There was no commotion.”

He later realized they had arrived after Flanagan shot himself but before an ambulance had arrived. Flanagan later died.

Strasser stopped the car about 200 yards away, grabbed his camera and began filming as he walked through brush in the median to get to the other side.

He filmed the silver vehicle from 200 yards away. About six police officers then began running toward him, shouting, “Get back to your car!”

Strasser retreated to his car, where he opened the trunk to put his camera inside. An officer, presumably a state trooper, came up and closed the trunk.

“You’re not going anywhere. Your car is being towed,” the officer told him. “You’re parked illegally.”

The officer then asked about the footage: “What’s on that camera? That could be evidence. We need to seize that.”

The officer took the camera and fiddled with it for a few seconds. Strasser said he needed it to go to Roanoke. The trooper then told Strasser he’d need to first delete the video footage.

“He couldn’t figure out how to delete it,” Strasser said. “He gave it back to me and said, ‘I’ll watch you delete it.’”

As Strasser pulled up a prompt to delete the footage the officer said, “Now push it,” watching every step of the process.

The officer allowed Strasser to keep his camera and the journalists left for Roanoke. Strasser removed the video card, hoping he could later retrieve the deleted footage.

He tweeted about the incident but was more concerned about preparing mentally for the reporting they’d be doing.

“You kind of go a little bit on autopilot when you go to a scene like this because you have to talk to people, you have a job to do,” he said.

He said the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown were the worse tragedy he’s covered, but “this one hits really close to home as a fellow journalist.”

State Police are doing an internal investigation of the incident over Strasser’s footage following a complaint by BBC.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, has trained police in Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington and other cities in how to avoid overstepping their authority.

He said reporters and citizens taking pictures or video are interfered with, threatened or harassed on a daily basis by police.

There are narrow circumstances in which police could ask for video footage or obtain it with a search warrant, he said. For instance, if a serious crime was committed and police believe that if they didn’t seize a camera, evidence would be lost or destroyed, they can ask for consent to view the images or get a search warrant, he said.

In this case, the trooper violated the reporter’s First Amendment right to free speech, his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable seizure and his 14th Amendment right not to be deprived of property without due process, Osterreicher said.

“It would seem from that conversation that the trooper was very interested that whatever images (Strasser) had never see the light of day,” he said.

BBC journalist Franz Strasser, shown here on assignment in Brazil in 2014, shot video footage of the scene on Interstate 66 where shooting suspect Vester Flanagan crashed a car on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. A trooper told him they needed to seize his camera because the footage could be evidence, but then ordered him to delete the video footage, he said. State Police are investigating. (Courtesy photo)

Read a BBC reporter's tweets after he was asked to delete video of the Vester Flanagan crash scene

The Virginian-Pilot
© August 28, 2015

BBC journalist Franz Strasser was ordered to delete footage Wednesday after he and a fellow journalist came upon the scene on Interstate 66 where Vester Lee Flanagan crashed a car following a pursuit by Virginia State Police.

Strasser tweeted about the incident Wednesday. Corinne Geller, the State Police spokeswoman, tweeted back that police would look into it because such actions would violate police policy. Geller said Friday that after seeing tweets about the incident State Police began an administrative investigation by its Professional Standards Unit that is ongoing.

Read Strasser's tweets, and Geller's response:

Just at the scene of the suspects shooting on I-66. Police told me to delete footage or lose camera.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Saw about 20 police cars in the middle of I-66 E, the silver suspect car and what appeared to be a coffin.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Was too far away to get any good footage. One officer threatened to tow my car and take my camera.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Watched me delete my one file, and let me go. Other officer apologized and said we have to understand.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Colleague @Tara_Mckelvey filmed the encounter on her phone. Will review that in a bit.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

That iPhone footage is unusable. All we have is what we saw and heard. They can't delete that!
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

It was either not being able to work for the rest of the day, w/o camera and car, or delete crappy footage from far away. Chose the latter.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Reason for confiscating camera was that it was evidence. Threatened to tow the car because it was illegally parked.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

But why they are then okay with deleting 'evidence' makes one question their reasoning.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

We were able to recover photos from the moment police asked us to delete crime scene footage #WDBJ pic.twitter.com/p1jzJkgJmv
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Neither of these VA state police officers were the one asking us to delete footage. It was mainly one officer. pic.twitter.com/6L0JhTBWPm
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

We are working on recovering the video file. Haven't touched SD card so there's a small chance.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

Not so much for crime scene footage but to hear the exchange. I recorded until the very end when they took over the camera.
— Franz Strasser (@franzstrasser) August 26, 2015

@franzstrasser VSP is aware of this incident and we are looking into it, as such actions violate VSP policy.
— Corinne Geller (@VSPPIO) August 27, 2015

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