Governor visits slaying victims’ TV colleagues
ROANOKE, Va. — Gov. Terry McAuliffe met privately Friday with grieving station employees at WDBJ-TV to share his condolences days after a reporter and a cameraman were shot to death by a former colleague on live television.
Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, died of gunshot wounds in the head and body, the medical examiner’s office said Friday. The woman Parker was interviewing, Vicki Gardner, was shot in the back and was in good condition Friday at a hospital.
The shooter, Vester Flanagan, 41, took his own life hours after the attack.
The 50 or so workers at WDBJ have been described as a close-knit group, and they have continued reporting on their slain colleagues in the face of the tragedy.
“The courage and determination they showed is truly, truly extraordinary,” McAuliffe said outside the station.
He talked about his support for universal background checks for gun purchases and said “there are too many guns in America and there are clearly too many guns in the wrong hands.” But McAuliffe, himself a gun owner, also said Flanagan had passed a background check.
Flanagan had never been arrested for a felony and had no criminal record. There are no records indicating he was ever committed or sought treatment for psychiatric problems.
McAuliffe also said he had spoken to Parker’s father, who has called for tougher legislation on gun control.
Adam Parker, who spoke outside the station later Friday, said he’s not against gun ownership but wants stricter background checks to keep guns away from unstable people. He also said that although he doesn’t currently own a gun, he plans to buy one now that he has decided to be an advocate for tighter gun laws.
Gardner, who remains hospitalized after losing a kidney and part of her colon, continues to improve, according to her boss, Troy Keaton.
Keaton also said Gardner, who awoke from surgery Thursday, has extended condolences to Parker’s and Ward’s families.
Meanwhile, the Franklin County sheriff’s office continued its investigation of the attack. In a Friday release, police reported Flanagan fired 17 shots from a Glock pistol during the attack. The release said police recovered two Glock handguns from Flanagan’s rental car, but no other guns were recovered at other locations.
Police also said writings and evidence seized from the gunman’s apartment showed the man “closely identified” with people who have committed mass murders, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Lt. Phillip Young, the sheriff ’s spokesman, said they have no indication that anyone was helping Flanagan, but they are continuing to investigate until they can conclusively rule out that possibility.
Citing the ongoing investigation, he declined to answer specific questions about the evidence in the case.
“We still have to keep as much as we can as close as we can,” he said.
Investigators said Flanagan left no indication of what his plans were after he fled the shooting scene.
Dan Dennison, the former news director at WDBJ, said the station had no idea of Flanagan’s personal shortcomings before he was hired there and he had received positive recommendations.
“He was victimized by everything and everyone and could never quite grasp the fact that he was the common denominator in all of these really sometimes serious interpersonal conflicts that he had with people,” Dennison said.
Dennison said Flanagan saw himself as a “professional victim.”
When the station tried to persuade Flanagan, who was black and gay, to get along better with his co-workers, he accused them of discrimination.
On the day he was fired in 2013, Flanagan pressed a wooden cross into Dennison’s hand and said, “You’ll need this,” as two police officers escorted him out. Flanagan’s departure was filmed by Ward, the cameraman who was killed.
After the shooting Wednesday, Flanagan went online and said Parker and Ward had wronged him in the past. He also posted a video he recorded of the attack to his social media accounts under his on-air name, Bryce Williams. Those accounts have since been disabled.