Ex-reporter in live TV murder was fired in Florida

WDBJ-TV morning show marks day of mourning with moment of silence

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The WDBJ-TV morning show in Roanoke Thursday missed their two stars -- Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27. At 6:45 a.m. — the time of the shooting that took their lives  — the station observed a moment of silence, showing the victim's photos on the screens.

Anchor Kim McBroom, who was on the anchor desk during Wednesday's shooting and tried to reassure viewers immediately after the attack was broadcast, joined hands with weatherman Leo Hirsbrunner and fellow anchor Steve Grant, who came in from sister station KYTV in Springfield, Missouri.

"Joining hands here on the desk. It's the only way to do it," she said just before the moment of silence.

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WDBJ-TV former reporter Vester Lee Flanagan II also shot Vicki Gardner, 62. She survived and was in stable condition Thursday morning.

Flanagan, who also went by the name Bryce Williams, had a tumultuous employment history that dates to the mid-1990s.  Marie Mattox, who represented him in a lawsuit he filed against a former employer in Florida, said she didn't see in him the ability for such violence.

"I thought that he would go on with his life and be able to make something productive of himself," she said.

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But there were others who noticed the turmoil and were afraid. Brandon Foster filmed a road rage incident involving Flanagan July 6 in Roanoke, Va. 

"He was obviously not in his right mind," Foster said. He posted the video on YouTube.

San Diego 6 News Director Don Shafer said that when he worked at WTWC-TV in Tallahassee he noticed some "odd behavior." Shafer said he hired and fired him.

"He was a good on-air performer, a pretty good reporter. And then things started getting a little strange," Shafer said. He added that Flanagan "threatened to punch people out ... and he was kind of running roughshod over folks in the newsroom."

Flanagan said he was harassed and was referred to as a "monkey." Kimberly Moore Wilmoth, a former co-worker at WTWC-TV, said he once filmed an elderly man who was trapped inside a car and was calling out for help.

"Instead of helping the man, he used the man as a prop," she said.

Orlando Salinas, a former WDBJ reporter who worked with Flanagan, told Adweek's TVSpy that Flanagan often complained about racism. Records show WDBJ fired him for poor performance and an unending stream of conflicts with co-workers.

According to Salinas, on Flanagan's last day at the station, he created a "ruckus." Police were called and Ward filmed him as he shouted insults and flipped off the camera. Flanagan handed news director, Dan Dennison, a small wooden cross.

"You'll need this," Flanagan said.

Larell Reynolds, a former WDBJ employee, said he was there.

"We were in a lock down the day that he was fired and a few days later we had police detail that kind of watched over the station," Reynolds said.

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In a letter to a judge, Flanagan described what he faced in Virginia as "vile, disgusting and inexcusable," asserting that colleagues strategically placed a watermelon around the office as a way to torment him.

"I am a very, very persistent person," he wrote, "and will utilize every resource I have to achieve justice and stand up for the rights of others at the same time."

His complaint for racial discrimination in Tallahassee was settled out of court, but the one in Roanoke was dismissed. 

Flanagan worked as a UnitedHealthcare call center employee in Virginia from September 2013 until November 2014, UnitedHealthcare spokesman Matt Burn said.

In a series of suicide notes Flanagan sent to ABC News, the disgruntled former WDBJ-TV employee said racial discrimination filled him with hatred. 

"Alison was our bright, shining light and it was cruelly extinguished by yet another crazy person with a gun," Parker's father, Andy Parker, said Wednesday. And Thursday morning, on CNN, he was in tears.

"My heart is broken ... she just turned 24 last week," he said. "I just wish I could touch her soul."

Flanagan's evil scheme began with the legal purchase of his gun two days after a church massacre. It included an escape plan that involved ditching one car and fleeing in a rental. He had extra license plates, a wig, sunglasses, a black hat and a Glock pistol with multiple magazines and ammunition. It all ended when he fatally shot himself during a police chase 200 miles from the site of Wednesday's carnage.

A sign left at the memorial featured pictures of Parker and Ward. It read: "Shining stars. Beloved in this community. We grieve your deaths and will hold you dear in our hearts always."

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The Washington Post's Justin Jouvenal, John Woodrow Cox and Dana Hedgepeth contributed to this report. The Associated Press and CNN also contributed to this report.