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
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/gun-show-firearms-bankground-checks-state-laws-map.html
Gun show background checks, State laws. Here is an area we can improve upon.
Inga – over the last couple of years I cannot remember a person being killed with a weapon they got at a gun show. All of them have been acquired by normal methods with a waiting period. However, they are all bonkers. So, the problem is not the guns or the gun shows, it is the mental health system failing.
An unalienable right, to defend oneself from all bogeymen, real or imagined, even if you’re an illegal immigrant. The irony.
Odd isn’t it…
We “pussies” manage to live our lives without packing heat, checking for exits, and barred doors. It’s the big brave guys who need an additional six inches of gun in order to put the ‘swagger’ in their walk. (wink – wink)
HenryH – pussies are bigger targets.
Maybe it’s a natural right? Illegal immigrants get to defend themselves too? Or are natural laws only American for citizens?
Their beloved 2nd Amendment, the law of unintended consequences.
Beautiful!
2nd amendment comes back and bites the gun nuts on the backside.
HenryH – a black gay mentally ill man kills two people and it hurts gun supporters? Please. What is shows it even news readers should be armed at all times.
Paul
Why would I come to your house to take your gun. If it were determined that you should not have a gun, there are appropriate people and measures. I count on them. I also count on being able to monitor them. I don’t plan on going down with a gun in my hand behind well bolted doors as I don’t plan on going down.
Enjoy your fantasies but please keep them to yourself.
issac – you need to do your own dirty work. Don’t depend on others. Man up, tiger.
There’s still a lot of this story to be revealed. Did Flanagan stalk this pair of journalists? Did he just happen to find them at the mall and decided to “go for it?
“Court Rules Illegal Immigrants Get 2nd Amendment Rights”
“It is now clear that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is no second-class entitlement, (and) we see no principled way to carve out the Second Amendment and say that the unauthorized (or maybe all noncitizens) are excluded,”
http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/court-rules-illegal-immigrants-get-2nd-amendment-rights
Paul,
Here is some liberal logic for you. Someone illegally in our country having the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms.” It would only be fitting for them to be carrying the weapons provided by Operation Fast & Furious.
Olly – little by little we have been getting those weapons back from Fast and Furious. 6 years is a mere nothing in government time.
Ross
That poor woman was nailed by Angela Corey, the same idiot that charged Zimmerman with murder, something of which he would never have been convicted, instead of manslaughter, the appropriate charge for which he would have been found guilty and now be, where he belongs, in prison.
Angela Corey is the perfect example of the wrong person in a place of authority. There are some in the police forces of this country. The issue at hand is what to do about it.
Or is that Illuminati?
Olly
No chains here, certainly no mental chains. No chains in Canada or France either. The chains still rattle for some here though, late at night, when you can hear, if you listen carefully, the sounds of the government troops marshaling their forces on the edge of town. Don’t worry, go back to sleep, cuz you have your Glock or Beretta tucked away under your mattress. Wait, maybe I left my Beretta in the kid’s room or under the recliner where I keep it while I am watching TV and tucking into my ‘two fingers’ of well earned Scotch, in case a government agent came blasting in.
issac – I have barred doors. It is going to take the government a few minutes to get in. It is not going to be a silent entry.
Excellent paper and absolutely relevant to the discussion.
“An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressedperception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and
reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance. Availability entrepreneurs– activists who manipulate the content of public discourse-strive to trigger
availability cascades likely to advance their agendas. Their availability campaigns may yield social benefits, but sometimes they bring harm, which suggests a need for safeguards. Focusing on the role of mass pressures in the regulation of risk associated with production, consumption, and the environment,
Professors Timur Kuran and Cass R. Sunstein analyze availability cascades and suggest reforms to alleviate their potential hazards. Their proposals include new governmental structures designed to give civil servants better insulation against mass demands for regulatory change and an easily accessible
scientzfic database to reduce people S dependence on popular (mis)perceptions”
Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=138144
Well, they’ll shoot you when you’re tryin’ to be so good
They’ll shoot you just like they said they would
They’ll shoot you when you’re tryin’ to go home
They’ll shoot you when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get a gun
Well, they’ll shoot you when you’re walkin’ on the street
They’ll shoot you when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat
They’ll shoot you when you’re walkin’ on the floor
They’ll shoot you when you’re walkin’ to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get a gun
… Like that?
Your welcome. Enjoy your chains.
Re: selfhelplegal
Today Marissa Alexander is still under house detention in Florida until 2017 after serving over two years in prison. Florida prosecutors threatened her with decades in prison for standing her ground from her ex-spouse with a long history of spousal abuse.
Maybe the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department will indict the Florida prosecutors for violating 14th Amendment federal “color of law” statutes but it hasn’t happened yet.
Most credible legal expert agree that Florida would have never sent a white male to prison for doing exactly what she did.
“Florida prosecutors threatened her with decades in prison for standing her ground from her ex-spouse with a long history of spousal abuse.” An abusive prosecutor does not change the data in the least. Blacks use stand your ground to get away with killing whites a far higher percentage of the time than whites use it when killing blacks. It’s still likely the most effective tool to keep blacks who kill whites out of jail in Florida. Let’s not forget that that same prosecutor intentionally hid exculpatory evidence from George Zimmerman’s defense team and fired the assistant who revealed it. Citing an example of abuse by an abusive prosecutor does not support a claim of failure of stand your ground. What did Angela Corey’s team hide from Marissa Alexander’s defense? http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/05/28/controversial-florida-state-attorney-angela-corey-loses-counterclaim-suit-against-zimmerman-witness-ben-kruidbos/
Ross
Marissa Alexander is hardly a case for SYG
She left the house, retrieved her gun, went back inside and fired a warning shot. All pretty much indications that she didn’t feel in imminent danger.
If you make it to the car keep on trucking.
If your estranged spouse has you trapped in the closet and goes The Shining on the door go crazy.
Olly
You just used the last argument of the ultimate loser. “Get out of my country.” As it heats up the real personalities surface. People who go to bed each night thinking that the government is marshaling forces specifically to take them down, people who would just as soon shoot you dead than entertain an intelligent thought, etc.
You and others on this blog illustrate better than I ever could the very reason why America needs to restrict gun ownership, regulate gun ownership, and take a serious look at the shameful condition of this country. Your tirade partnered with a gun is the very cause of much of the mayhem.
Thanks for arguing my point for me.
issac – would you like to come to my house and try to take my gun away?
I believe there is common ground to be found on this subject and it is not centered on the weapon of choice. The people committing these acts of violence are not going to be deterred by any restrictions on weapons, period. These people will be the McGyver of violence and manufacture whatever they have to carry out their plan. What is a reasonable plan to deal with the psychological breakdown that appears to be common among these people?
The dead girl’s dad seemed a bit wacko on TV last night in the interview but then again one must consider that his daughter had been murdered by a nutjob just hours before. TV will take advantage of situations and interview anyone they can at any time. Folks who want to outlaw guns should move to Belgium and France. When a wacko muslim gets on the bus and his name is gus and he has a rifle then those unarmed folks on the bus will think twice about their gun control laws. Had it not been for the three Americans who were well trained in self defense many people on that train would be dead. Had they been armed they could have taken the perp out quicker.
The whole event stinks to high heaven and it seems you’re at least sub-consciously getting it. The NDAA authorized the U.S. government to USE the media to promote THEIR agenda; to “shape public opinion”.
This site attempts to debunk conspiracy theories but all they do is help make the case. The text is classic double speak and if you don’t know what that means, read George Orwell’s 1984. It is here NOW.
https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-2013-ndaa-thornberry-amendment-domestic-propaganda-disinformation.t592/
“(b) Rule of Construction.–Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors from engaging in any medium or form of communication, either directly or indirectly, because a United States domestic audience is or may be thereby exposed to program material, or based on a presumption of such exposure. Such material may be made available within the United States and disseminated, when appropriate, pursuant to sections 502 and 1005 of the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 ”
Every single stinking one of the “events” follows the same script, featuring pathetic crises actors who are paid and have to sign confidentiality agreements. Sometimes we even find Craigslist ads for their services, and government websites showing DRILLS at the exact location on the same date. If you don’t buy what I’m saying ask yourself this, “Why do the ‘victims’ loved ones skip every singe stage of grieving and go straight to gun control, social media control, free speech control,. etc. ???” Acting strange indeed.
Karen S,
I apologize for not responding sooner. Allergy season is in full swing here in the STL, and I am suffering!
Any common sense member of management or HR would not have hired Mr. Flanigan. As someone mentioned above, look at his previous work history. Why would you hire an lunatic, fire a lunatic, and then get upset when the lunatic acts like a lunatic by coming back and shooting up the place? Furthermore, not to seem as if I am a racist, but why would you hire a black man with this troubled employment past to work in your organization? Has the GM lost his sanity?
If I was the parents of Mr. Ward and Ms. Parker, I would file a lawsuit against the GM and the TV Station (as Professor Turley hinted towards a possible civil suit?). Now, the father of Ms. Parker, who just appeared on CNN, wants to do ‘everything in his power have stricter gun control.’ I wonder how much money, TV interviews, speaking engagements, etc., he is going to receive by becoming a stricter gun control advocate. Instead, he should be on TV discussing how much of an idiot the GM and TV station are by hiring this lunatic, and advocating for more thorough background checks and (as I said before) improving human relations at the work place via HR, Employee Relations, etc.
RWL – I agree with you. The station hired a lunatic. The station pays. This is another case of someone not getting proper mental health.