We often discuss the “perils of the press” in humorous stories of the unexpected for journalists. However, we are often reminded of the dangers faced by reporters in their daily jobs. Today offered one such tragic example from Moneta, Virginia. Vester Lee Flanagan, who used the name on-air of Bryce Williams, shot and killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. He then posted the filmed event and tweeted about it. It is a bizarre and chilling example of how social media has become intertwined with such crimes in our society. Flanagan later shot himself in a confrontation with police.
Flanagan (shown left) said that Parker made “racist comments” and that he had filed a complaint was filed against her through the equal employment opportunity commission. Ward had worked with Flanagan and he said that Ward had complained about having to work with him. He then shared his attack on Twitter. Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, died at the scene while the woman being interviewed was rushed to Roanoke Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery.
Ward was engaged to Melissa Ott, a news producer who was working on the show and watched from the control room as the shooting happened. This was her last day on the job because she was about to start a new job in Charlotte, North Carolina and Ward planned to move with her. The office-mates had just thrown a party that morning for her.
These cases often raise civil liability for the employer. While the criminal case is apparently closed given the statements and film of the deceased, families can sometimes sue over the failure of an employer to warn them or take some action. In this case, it appears that Flanagan is no longer working for the station so that insulates the studio to some extent. There can be questions however is anyone had reason to know of a violent predisposition or targeting of these victims. There is no indication of such forewarning or prior indications of violence at this time. This type of delayed and unhinged response is very difficult for anyone to foresee and an employer cannot monitor former employees for years.
I can only imagine the grief of these families and survivors when faced with such a senseless act. The chilling combination of social media deepens the unfathomable aspects of this double murder.
The video is graphic and available here
“Less guns = less gun violence”
Brilliant! You thought of that all by yourself?
““Less guns = less gun violence” ” Tell that to the Hungarians as the Soviet tanks rolled in.
Less guns = less gun violence
If only… The floor had a gun!
If only …the railing had a gun!
If only… The light post had a gun!
If only…
Why is it the only answer to these silly questions is to throw more deadly weapons at the murder scene? Like more gunz is the only solution to gun violence? Idiots!
That’s like people at an AA meeting grieving the loss of a friend who died while driving drunk sitting in a circle wondering why their friend just stay at the bar for another round… ‘Cuz that changes things? Idiots!
Where was the good guy with a gun… We heard that one yet?
Gunz… America!
We slay ourselves… Idiots!
It’s NO ONE’s place to say how a father should grieve.
Inga – the father is not grieving but acting out.
Now Paul, I’m very surprised that you are not aware that the sixth stage of grieving is being interviewed about the tragic death of your loved one.
The seventh stage is getting a law named after them.
More demonization of the victim’s father.
Attention seekers tend to love other attention seekers. If God forbid my child was killed by a hater I sure as hell wouldn’t be seeking attention on TV!! I would be grieving and taking care of my living family. If, after his daughter’s body is in the ground, he does this well then that’s a different story. Right now, it’s all about him, he’s just using the tragic loss of a daughter to get attention and maybe, as his hero John Walsh has done, make some serious TV money over the tragedy. But, this attention seeking behavior does speak to some folks.
http://youtu.be/5E-jIWijcF0
http://youtu.be/ibWLA8DqWrc
DBQ, I just stumbled onto this unbelievable pathology. They can’t talk about what this killer did, his background, his hate, they can’t even SAY HIS NAME. I got his name wrong. They are able to point that out so they know his name. But, THEY CAN’T SAY HIS NAME!!!
Paul
Quote John Wayne
“I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people … I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
Paul
John Wayne from an interview in Playboy,
“I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people … I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
It’s completely bizarre that it is so important that I say his name.
Sorry, I can’t comply. Here’s hoping no heads explode over my intransigence.
“I demand we talk about the black gay insane man!!!”
Well….since HE was the one who obtained the gun and purposely pulled the trigger on an inanimate object to commit murder and is the actual CAUSE of the crime, that would be a great idea.
LOL!!!
Paul
‘Man up, tiger’
So, because I chose to wander around without a gun, I am not ‘manning up’? This is an example of the perverse interpretation of what it means to be a man or a woman, I suppose.
From an interview with Playboy,
“I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people … I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
“At the time of Pearl Harbor, Wayne was 34 years old. His marriage was on the rocks but he still had four kids to support. His career was taking off, in large part on the strength of his work in the classic western Stagecoach (1939). But he wasn’t rich. Should he chuck it all and enlist? Many of Hollywood’s big names, such as Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Clark Gable, did just that. (Fonda, Wills points out, was 37 at the time and had a wife and three kids.) But these were established stars. Wayne knew that if he took a few years off for military service, there was a good chance that by the time he got back he’d be over the hill.
Besides, he specialized in the kind of movies a nation at war wanted to see, in which a rugged American hero overcame great odds. Recognizing that Hollywood was an important part of the war effort, Washington had told California draft boards to go easy on actors. Perhaps rationalizing that he could do more good at home, Wayne obtained 3-A status, “deferred for [family] dependency reasons.” He told friends he’d enlist after he made just one or two more movies.
The real question is why he never did so. Wayne cranked out thirteen movies during the war, many with war-related themes. Most of the films were enormously successful and within a short time the Duke was one of America’s most popular stars. His bankability now firmly established, he could have joined the military, secure in the knowledge that Hollywood would welcome him back later. He even made a half-hearted effort to sign up, sending in the paperwork to enlist in the naval photography unit commanded by a good friend, director John Ford.
But he didn’t follow through. Nobody really knows why; Wayne didn’t like to talk about it. A guy who prided himself on doing his own stunts, he doesn’t seem to have lacked physical courage. One suspects he just found it was a lot more fun being a Hollywood hero than the real kind. Many movie star-soldiers had enlisted in the first flush of patriotism after Pearl Harbor. As the war ground on, slogging it out in the trenches seemed a lot less exciting. The movies, on the other hand, had put Wayne well on the way to becoming a legend. “Wayne increasingly came to embody the American fighting man,” Wills writes. In late 1943 and early 1944 he entertained the troops in the Pacific theater as part of a USO tour. An intelligence bigshot asked him to give his impression of Douglas MacArthur. He was fawned over by the press when he got back. Meanwhile, he was having a torrid affair with a beautiful Mexican woman. How could military service compare with that?
In 1944, Wayne received a 2-A classification, “deferred in support of [the] national … interest.” A month later the Selective Service decided to revoke many previous deferments and reclassified him 1-A. But Wayne’s studio appealed and got his 2-A status reinstated until after the war ended.
People who knew Wayne say he felt bad about not having served. (During the war he’d gotten into a few fights with servicemen who wondered why he wasn’t in uniform.) Some think his guilty conscience was one reason he became such a superpatriot later. The fact remains that the man who came to symbolize American patriotism and pride had a chance to do more than just act the part, and he let it pass.
Then say his name, Henry!!! This is getting VERY fascinating. What is his name Henry? I was wrong so please correct me!! WOW!
His name is not Vestel.
Vestel is a funny name, so say his stage name, Bryce Williams, if you wish. What’s the matter, cat got your collective tongue. Did Vestel/Bryce have magic guns that required no human or is he to blame? Can a gay, black, coward, hater have any responsibility? Or is it just the “GUNS, GUNS, GUNS!!”