[UPDATED] Bryce Williams Suicide Attempt? Vester Lee Flanagan, Disgruntled TV Station Employee, Dies
This story has been updated.
Updated as of 2:20 p.m.: Vester Lee Flanagan was pronounced dead Wednesday afternoon, a Virginia state official said, according to a tweet from a Washington Post reporter. He likely died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, though it was immediately unclear if he shot himself intentionally or not.
Original story: Vester Lee Flanagan, the person, also known as Bryce Williams, who is suspected of shooting and killing two of his former WDBJ-TV co-workers Wednesday morning during a live broadcast in Roanoke, Virginia, reportedly shot himself hours after the shootings, according to multiple news reports. He was stopped by police on or near Interstate 66 in Virginia and was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries,WDBJ reported.
Police said after they initiated the traffic stop, the driver refused to stop and sped away. He then ran off the road and crashed. Police found the driver suffering from a gunshot wound, the Associated Press reported.
A tweet posted Wednesday to the now-suspended Twitter account for a person named Bryce Williams posted graphic footage of the shooting before Flanagan was confirmed as the gunman by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe told Washington, D.C., radio station WTOP that the suspect was "distraught" and had been chased by state police.
Flanagan allegedly shot and killed reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward as they were conducting an interview. A third person was hurt in the shootings. Video of the on-air report shows the moment when someone opened fire on the three people.
Ward was 27. Parker, 24, was a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the News Leader newspaper in Staunton, Virginia, reported.
Flanagan, 41, was a multimedia journalist at WDBJ from March 2012 to February 2013, according to a LinkedIn page. Before that, he was employed as a communications director at NDG Interactive. He claimed to have graduated from San Francisco State University.
Flanagan filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2000 against WTWC-TV, an NBC affiliate in North Florida, claiming a station producer called him a "monkey," Newsweek reported. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum. Flanagan claimed in the suit that other black employees at the station "had also been called 'monkeys' by officials" there.
Media outlets initially reported that Flanagan had committed suicide.
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