Posted on 08/29/2015 10:31:13 AM PDT by robowombat
Investigators Release New Details in WDBJ Shooting Aug. 29, 2015 8:24am
Franklin County Sheriff’s Office released new details from its investigation into Wednesday’s shooting on live TV that left a Virginia reporter and cameraman dead and another woman injured.
Alison Parker and Adam Ward as seen in a tribute by WDBJ. (Image source: WDBJ-TV) Alison Parker and Adam Ward as seen in a tribute by WDBJ. (Image source: WDBJ-TV) Though the investigation into the shooting and deaths of Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, is still ongoing, the sheriff’s office officially announced that suspect Vester Lee Flanagan, 41, fired 17 rounds from a Glock pistol during the WDBJ-TV on-air interview at Bridgewater Plaza near Smith Mountain Lake Wednesday morning. Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce, was shot in the back by Flanagan but was listed in good condition after surgeries.
Two Glocks, which previous reports have noted were purchased legally with a background check, were found in Flanagan’s rental car, which he crashed in I-66 hours after the shooting and proceeded to shoot himself. He later died at a Northern Virginia hospital as a result.
The sheriff’s office described the attack as “well-planned and pre-meditated,” believing Flanagan, a former and disgruntled WDBJ employee who went by the name Bryce Williams, acted alone.
State Police officers leave the apartment of Vester Lee Flanagan II, in Roanoke, Va., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Flanagan filmed himself gunning down a WDBJ-TV reporter and cameraman during a live television interview Wednesday and posted the video on social media after fleeing the scene. (AP/Steve Helber) State Police officers leave the apartment of Vester Lee Flanagan II, in Roanoke, Va., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Flanagan filmed himself gunning down a WDBJ-TV reporter and cameraman during a live television interview Wednesday and posted the video on social media after fleeing the scene. (AP/Steve Helber) “Based on careful scrutiny of those writings and evidence seized from his apartment, it is apparent that Flanagan very closely identified with individuals who have committed domestic acts of violence and mass murder, as well as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.,” the sheriff’s office stated in a news release.
This undated photo provided by WDBJ-TV, shows Vester Lee Flanagan II, who killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward in Moneta, Va., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Flanagan was a former employee at WDBJ who appeared on air as Bryce Williams. (WDBJ-TV via AP) This undated photo provided by WDBJ-TV, shows Vester Lee Flanagan II, who killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward in Moneta, Va., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Flanagan was a former employee at WDBJ who appeared on air as Bryce Williams. (WDBJ-TV via AP) Though Flanagan was not wearing any body armor or protective gear when he shot himself, was apprehended by police and taken to an area hospital where he later died, the sheriff’s department is trying to determine if he did wear such gear at the shooting scene.
Roanoke police revealed they had direct contact with Flanagan at least twice after escorting him from the WDBJ-TV station following his firing in February 2013.
Department spokesman Scott Leamon said Friday officers went to Flanagan’s apartment about a year later at the request of a friend in Atlanta who feared for his well-being. Flanagan assured the officers he was OK.
Last December, police questioned Flanagan after he asked his bank to refund money he said had been withdrawn from his account through unauthorized ATM transactions. Leamon said police considered Flanagan a person of interest but didn’t find enough evidence to charge anyone. The money was refunded.
The police department is conducting a review of its dealings with Flanagan in response to his fatal shooting Wednesday of two WDBJ journalists.
Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton told reporters from WDBJ Friday that his wife was watching the interview when the shooting occurred, calling him into the bedroom to see what happened.
Overton told the news station, which has been publicly sharing its grief and mourning since the tragedy, he immediately called dispatchers. While driving to the scene, Overton got a call from Chris Hurst, a WDBJ reporter who was Parker’s boyfriend but also Overton’s friend.
“[...] of course knowing that Alison was at Bridgewater and I had to tell him Chris I can’t tell you, I don’t know what’s happening, I’m en route, I just, I can’t tell you anything right now because I don’t know and I could just hear the horror in his voice that he know that something drastically horrible had happened,” Overtold recalled to the news station.
Hurst said he had recently given his girlfriend a black onyx ring with some diamonds for her birthday and told her they would save up for an engagement ring and be together forever.
He said on the morning she was killed, they exchanged several texts as she arrived at work and went to bed after his night shift.
“‘You need to go to bed,’” she texted. “And she sent me some kisses, and emoji, and said, ‘Good night, sweet boy’ at 3:26 a.m. And that was the last I ever heard from her.”
In the wake of Parker’s death, her father, Andy Parker, has vowed to make stricter gun control laws his mission.
“I’ve got to do something going forward that makes her life meaningful and will always be with me. And this is the way to do it,” Andy Parker told AP in an interview earlier this week.
Andy Parker gained a strong supporter in Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a gun-owner himself, who has promised to help fight for stronger background checks for gun buyers.
“There are too many guns in America and there are clearly too many guns in the wrong hands. So we’re going to continue to do what we can,” McAuliffe said Friday during a condolence visit.
In the wake of Parker’s death, her father, Andy Parker, has vowed to make stricter gun control laws his mission.
“I’ve got to do something going forward that makes her life meaningful and will always be with me. And this is the way to do it,” Andy Parker told AP in an interview earlier this week.
Andy Parker gained a strong supporter in Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a gun-owner himself, who has promised to help fight for stronger background checks for gun buyers.
“There are too many guns in America and there are clearly too many guns in the wrong hands. So we’re going to continue to do what we can,” McAuliffe said Friday during a condolence visit.
How, making homosexuality a reason to deny gun ownership? It is a mental disease.
All true. And we can sit here smug and satisfied on the high ground. But that was one horrible video and we need to recognize the effect such videos will have. These gopro point of view videos, instantly uploaded to social media are going to be the new norm.
These spree shootings of innocent random victims will lose us our gun rights. I honestly believe if that Sandy Hook shooter would have uploaded a video of a kindergarten being blasted apart with an AR, that would have been it. At least for semi autos.
We have a serious problem where people who are well known as unstable are getting their hands on them. If that problem of crazy people isn’t fixed, the guns will be moved against.
And there really isn’t a quick easy answer because we have a generation of boys doped up all through their school years. They are out there in large numbers. And not throw in moslems and revolutionary blacks.
Keep your powder dry and get what you think you’ll want and need. Because the prohibition will eventually hit with the right horror video.
Did he say as a result of this, he intends to get a gun? So it’s ok for him but not the rest of us? Perhaps I misunderstood?
Did he say as a result of this, he intends to get a gun? So it’s ok for him but not the rest of us? Perhaps I misunderstood?
Terry McAulliffe- a “gun owner” himself. Really? What, for hunting....
The man is a total f’ing liar of the first order and the bagman who is supposed to “deliver” VA to hitlery by this head faking lying shiite about “sensible” gun control. He is quite simply an apparatchik for the german socialist Clintoons.
It indeed used to be listed as a mental disorder until politically they removed it from the list.
And that’s something that is going to have to be addressed. Right now, unless you have been adjudicated to be mentally ill, you cannot be denied a purchase.
The background check cannot see medical records.
Most mentally ill types never see a courtroom to be adjudicated. They drift in and out of the medical system. But to a background check they look clean as a whistle.
There is going to need to be a way to resolve that. Mental health is going to have to be part of the equation. And the government in return for access to non adjudicated nuts, will have to show a clear and demonstrated commitment to not play gun denial games with every returning vet, or person getting a divorce counseling, or parent getting some Prozac after the death of a child.
The answer lies somewhere in there.
Of course, it isn’t achievable because they are on a political jihad. And they aren’t really interested in anything except social change and a total prohibition.
Yep, knew it. That's exactly what I was waiting to hear.
In the wake of Parker’s death, her father, Andy Parker, has vowed to make stricter gun control laws his mission.
The murderer drove a rental car to the scene so ban rental cars. Shut down Hertz immediately! Outlaw streets, too!
That and ban Affirmative action hires!!!!
Again, what Gun Laws would have prevented Flanagan from getting a gun?
With his past history of problems at the work place he never should have been hired.
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