Virgina –-(Ammoland.com)-Â A TV reporter and cameraman were shot to death during a live television interview on CBS Roanoke affiliate WDBJ-TV Wednesday by a gunman who recorded himself carrying out the killings and posted the video on social media after fleeing the scene.
Authorities identified the suspect as a journalist who had been fired from the station earlier this year. Hours later and hundreds of miles away, he ran off the road and a trooper found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He died at a hospital later Wednesday.
Virginia State Police Sgt. Rick Garletts said a license-plate reader alerted troopers to the suspect’s vehicle.
The shots Wednesday morning rang out on-air as reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were presenting a local tourism story at an outdoor shopping mall. Viewers saw her scream and run, and she could be heard saying “Oh my God,” as she fell. Ward fell, too, and the camera he had been holding on his shoulder captured a fleeting image of the suspect holding a handgun.
As you can see from the video, the gunman held his firearm in clear view for upwards of 20 seconds. No one in the area saw it until it was too late. This is a sad reminder of how important situational awareness is, and how we must be on guard at all times.
Mental illness is the blame here. Nothing else.
Many of these firearm attacks happened in “gun free” zones. Almost everyone of these incidents. What does that tell you? These mentally unstable people that should be getting treatment or put away have the sense to figure out that gun free zones are the exact place to be to shoot people. Let alone a cold and calculating criminal understands the advantage they have.
The lack of common sense by these leftist and media loons is amazing.
After attending the heated gun debate during State legislating ownerous terrible gun laws, the HIPPA privacy protections under Federal privacy laws prevents reporting and including these loose cannons in Federal databases to scree and prevent ownership of a firearm. If you carefully look at of the mass shootings, they all have a common thread of known mental instability. Most were able to obtain a firearm legally because they were not flagged. Virginia Tech, Shooting of Gabby Gifford ,The Wasington Navy Yard shootings,Connecticut shool shootings Movie theater shooting in Colorado, South Carolina church shooting, all have the common element of an… Read more »
What a coward. Too bad he just didn’t off himself first.
So when will we all wake up and learn there is no where we are safe anymore. Gun Free Zones are just a great place to get caught without your side arm. And we all know how that ends. We all have to develop better mind sets…
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Unfortunate that the father of Miss Parker was on TV today demanding action by VA and Federal Govt including POTUS Obama for more gun control.
He says he don’t want to take guns away but have common sense background checks and close loopholes.
He also said his family did not own firearms but he will by buying one.
He will be making gun control his mission in life and said he needs a gun to protect himself from people out there that are against gun control.
He also mentioned the NRA.
Sick sick sick! Whiny Black Guy! Racist Bastard! That’s all he is! May he be Rotting in Hell!
What I don’t inderstand is if he was fired for some conflict with these people and wanted revenge wouldn’t it be logical that he would have said something before shooting them? Wouldn’t he want to savor the moment by reminding them of the supposed awful thing he believes they did to him? Then the same day theObama regime calls for more gun control. There’s something not right about this.
A psychopath that wanted his special treatment for being a racist gay man with anger management issues . I disagree with airing the videos , who gives a crap what he thought. Don’t let crazies think they will be infamous.
Agree that this was NOT staged.
If he used hollow point ammo it would not have exited the body,
the first two rounds may not have hit vital organs and the woman
was able to run but he did shoot her in the back twice.
Unfortunate the camera man could not have hit the gunman in the head
with his heavy camera before he was fired on.
The adrenaline kicked in and the flight instinct kicked in.
Sad day.
this is not a “phony” shooting as some have suggested Unless your shot in the head or spine you wouldn’t die instantly Every hunter knows this…. There would be time to run a little. This is obviously one extremely sick individual. Anyone, anywhere, and at any time could run across such a person. The color of thier skin has nothing to do with it. This man has blamed his failures in life upon the color of his skin. The truth is that he was mentally ill, and of poor character. The only way to defend yourself from such an encounter… Read more »
I agree with the comment above. This is being focused as a firearm issue when the main issue is the mental health issues that that man had. Like said before, if he used a knife there wouldn’t be anti-knife agendas being boasted about. That firearm wasn’t the cause of this horrific incident. The mentally ill man wielding it was. And if only a law abiding citizen who has a concealed and carry permit was there this man might have been stopped. Anyway, I guess an anti-gun person will take any incident they can and use it to there advantage which… Read more »
I agree it looks staged, the alleged suspect’s hand looks white, wearing a long sleeve shirt while the others are wearing summer clothing & he’s also dreesed like “Jason” from “Friday the 13th” standing about a foot or less from all three of them especially the two women who almost have a full frontal view of him while he is extending his arm with the firearm pointing in their direction & they don’t notice him!. Then he discharges 8-9 rounds from a pistol ranging from a 9mm – .45 caliber which appears to be no blood splatter anywhere, if you… Read more »
It looks like to me that latly most of the shootings are by black perpitrators SO LETS USE SOME COMMON CENTS AND BAN THEM FROM HAVING GUNS, MAKE CENTS???? YEP!!! BAN THE BLACKS FROM HAVING GUNS THAT SHOULD DO IT. EDWARDO
Eduardo, Obviously you are ignorant to the fact that the mass killings, Charleston, Sandy hook, the movie theatre shootings etc have been done by white males. Let’s not begin to act ignorant. I’m not even going to focus on the other terrorists…white limp dicked police officers killing unarmed black men and women.
Our society wants to “understand” behavior. I believe there is no understanding this kind of madness. It is beyond human comprehension, what goes on in the mind of someone so warped and deeply sick….. there is no way we can understand, but we must learn something from these horrific events or these young peoples lives lost are lost if vain. We have no mechanism in place to take note of and catch behavior patterns that lead very sick people to resort to these horribly criminal, insane acts. If we focus on the gun we waste valuable energy and go down… Read more »
The problem is not that we don’t know the signs – the problem is that in the latter half of the twentieth century the progressive establishment decided that the self esteem of the loonies outweigh the safety of society at large. Behavior that used to get people committed now gets them drugs, hugs and encouraging words. Couple that with a few generations raised under the equally ‘progressive’ notions that punishment is emotionally damaging, and that stumble-footed dim bulbs should get trophies and passing grades for simply breathing, and it’s no wonder society is going to shit.
To just start shooting someone without provocation is something that I can’t wrap my mind around. The cold, calculating insanity required to do that is beyond my imagination. The fact that he was known to be mentally ill and that nothing could be done to get him treated should be a wake up call to all our politicians, but instead, they call for more useless gun control. What that tells me is that we need new politicians, as they are ignoring the needs of the people, and ignoring that we need stricter mental health laws.
I totally agree with your sentiment.
An ‘affirmative action hire’ who didn’t know how to ‘get along with others’?
Crazies like him are much less likely to engage in slaughters where the public is armed. In states and cities where the 2nd Amendment is respected, murders like this are far less frequent; would-be perpetrators know they wouldn’t live long enough to succeed.
Hmm, I’m reading some of the comments here and I see a lot of denial going on. When access to guns is as easy as it is in the USA the “crazies”, who wouldn’t otherwise have access to guns can get them easily and this and Sandy Hook and Columbine and Virginia Tech and lots of other incidents are the result. If the armed citizen deterrent is a valid argument how come there aren’t more examples in the news of how a massacre was prevented because a citizen was armed? You’d think the NRA would be publicizing the heck out… Read more »
The only way to make it harder for “crazies” (your term) to buy firearms is to get them registered in the background check system already in place. The left has fought to retain privacy rights for those with severe mental illness and even though it is illegal for them to purchase or possess a firearm, many doctors are loathe to report for fear of being sued. And in most of these cases, family and friends were aware of the problem and did nothing. There are already laws in place but until they are enforced these attacks will continue. Punishing law… Read more »
The news doesn’t report the stories where a good guy with a gun stops violence. It happens all the time. You sound like you are from England. If you are, you don’t have any opinion in this country regarding the 2nd Amendment. We kicked your ass out of the country 239 years ago. The fact news doesn’t report good gun news is an objective shame. Everyday in America, in places where guns are prevalent, like Vermont and Texas, and other states that shun nannyism, people are saved by the gun. Everyday.
Forrest, your full of it. The news is bias and good guys and gals with guns stop violence and crime everyday….everyday. We really don’t care what Brits have to say about guns. You bend over for the king. We kicked you out of here 239 years ago. Your opinions don’t matter here and that’s all I have to say.
Joel
What?? “… access to guns is easy(?) in the USA” … ? What color is the sky in your world? There are currently over 20,000 gun-related laws in the US. American firearms are THE most heavily-regulated industry in the entire world!! 100 million law-abiding, responsible citizens (who own 300 million firearms, despite the bureaucratic manure required to do so) are absolutely not any part of the criminal violence in this country. The half-million law-breakers (criminals, who – by definition – do not obey laws) are the problem. Murder, armed assault, armed robbery, and rape – along with gun ownership by… Read more »
I am not saying it is not real but it just seems strange that he was that close to them and pointing the gun and they all just ignored him. And you see him shooting but don’t see any blood or anything. And then why does it look like the gun man dropped his camera he wasn’t shot at that point? It all just seems staged or something. But I guess it could be real.
Someone has not been near a TV in the last two days.
Just because it’s on tv doesn’t mean it’s real.
Yet another psychotic, known by the law officials, the “care takers”, family, and friends………who live among law abiding people.
Its awefull the fact that the tags on this video say self defence when there no defence what so ever hes hardly defending hinself and the woman has absolutly no chance at defending her self what so ever shot point blank and neither does the other guy.
Agree with Tom. Also IMHO what they want is fame, and by showing the video, he has achieved his goal. but what sickens me is that heffer c l i n t o n, started her anti gun speech before the bodys are even cold. And the rest of my views on this will remain to my self
I guess the anti-gun news media’s propaganda campaign of calling every criminal with a firearm, regardless of the crime he commits, a “gunman,” has succeeded when pro-gun media does the same thing! He’s not a “gunman” he’s a murderer! If he used a knife, would you call him a “knifeman”?
You American’s are absolutely insane…
You value guns more than people…
You deserve all the mass shootings you get, as you all support them.
Listen to yourselves…”anti-gun media propaganda”.
You’re f**king…INSANE.
There”s a way to identify the creature that Liam is.
Three Rules of Social Justice Warrriors:
1. SJW’s always lie.
2. SJW’s always project.
3. SJW’s always double down.
h/t to Vox Day