Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY 28 AUG,2015

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U.S. NEWSFriday 28 August 2015

On-air shooter threatened to make ‘headlines,’ showed anger

ROANOKE, Virginia (AP) — called how her off-hand a judge filed as part of his After the killing, Flanagan around the world Wednes-
Vester Flanagan fulfilled comment that the often 2013 lawsuit against the texted a friend suggesting day after Ward’s camera
a threat to put his con- boisterous Flanagan was television station. “Your he had “done something recorded the attack.
flict with co-workers into acting quiet led him to try Honor, I am not the mon- stupid,” investigators wrote Later, during an afternoon
“the headlines” when he to grab her by the shoul- ster here.” in a search warrant. He news conference, the sta-
gunned down two em- der, and tell her never to The lawsuit was dismissed turned the gun on himself tion’s general manager,
ployees of a Virginia TV sta- talk to him again. in July 2014. But in recent when police caught up to Jeffrey Marks, recalled a
tion during a live morning At a bar in Roanoke, the weeks, Flanagan laid care- him a few hours later. Inside series of problems with Fla-
broadcast — one of them manager recalled Flana- ful plans for retribution. his rental car, investigators nagan while he worked at
a cameraman who had gan was so incensed when He contacted ABC News found extra license plates, WDBJ from March 2012 to
filmed his firing two years no one thanked him as he about what he claimed a wig, shawl, sunglasses February 2013. Flanagan
accused a news photog-
WDBJ-TV7 news morning anchor Kimberly McBroom, second from right, and meteorologist Leo Hirsbrunner, right, are joined rapher of trespassing on
private property. He con-
by visiting anchor Steve Grant, second from left, and Dr. Thomas Milam, of the Carilion Clinic, as they observe a moment of fronted an anchor over
a story and attempted
silence during the early morning newscast at the station, in Roanoke, Va., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. The moment of silence was to reach the company’s
CEO to complain. He filed
at the moment reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were killed during a live broadcast Wednesday, while on a complaint with the Equal
Employment Opportunity
assignment in Moneta. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Commission, as well as the
lawsuit.
earlier. left that he sent a nearly was a story tip and filled his and a hat as well as some Flanagan’s joking and
smiling one minute could
But as station employ- 20-page letter, lambasting Facebook page with pho- stamped letters and a “to turn to anger in the next,
a former colleague, Justin
ees struggled Thursday to employees’ behavior. tos and video montages do” list. McLeod, said in an inter-
view.
explain the events that As Flanagan encountered seemingly designed to in- Colleagues of the journal- Once, seemingly out of
nowhere, Flanagan told
framed Flanagan’s an- repeated tensions with troduce himself to a larger ists shot to death returned a photographer that he
knew the man didn’t like
ger, others who had run others around him, he de- audience. to their morning show him because he was gay.
The photographer re-
across the gunman in the scribed himself as the ag- On Wednesday, Flanagan Thursday, in a broadcast sponded by telling Flana-
gan that he had not even
time since he lost his job at grieved and unappreci- killed 24-year-old Alison that opened with images known, McLeod said.
But there was no inkling
WDBJ-TV described a man ated victim. Parker, a reporter for WDBJ, of Parker and Ward. then or since of what was
to come, Marks said. For-
whose hair-triggered tem- “How heartless can you and cameraman Adam “We come to you with mer co-workers, surprised
that he stayed in town af-
per was increasingly set off be? My entire life was dis- Ward, 27, while the two heavy hearts. Two of our ter losing him job, passed
him from time to time.
by slights that were more rupted after moving clear conducted a live interview own were shot during a They called them “Bryce
sightings,” referring to Fla-
often imagined than real. across the country for a for the station’s morning live shot yesterday morn- nagan’s on-air name,
McLeod said. But none had
A former co-worker at job only to have my dream broadcast, then went on- ing,” said Kim McBroom, any conversation with him,
let alone confrontations.
a call center where he turn into a nightmare,” Fla- line to claim that they had the anchor whose open- “We are still at a loss to fig-
ure out what happened
worked until late 2014 re- nagan wrote in a letter to wronged him in the past. mouthed shock was seen to him in those 2 ½ years,”
Marks said.q