Vester Lee Flanagan, who used the pseudonym Bryce Williams, carried out a fatal shooting of two WDBJ7 Virginia employees Wednesday morning, killing Alison Parker and Adam Ward during a live broadcast he subsequently uploaded to Twitter.
Flanagan's Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts - each under the name Bryce Williams - were immediately suspended, but not before he left clues toward a motive. A few of the suspected shooter's on-air segments have been uploaded to YouTube.
On his Twitter account, Flanagan, 41, alleged field Parker made racist comments towards him with they worked together at the TV station, adding that Ward reported him to human resources.
"Adam went to hr on me after working with me one time!!!" read one of Flanagan's tweets. Another referenced an EEOC, or discrimination, report he filed against Parker and WDBJ after he was fired, one which prompted Flanagan to post "They hired her after that!???"
His $15,000 lawsuit was dismissed.
"Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience," WDBJ president Jeff Marks said during the channel's noon broadcast. "He quickly gathered a reputation of someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out to people to say things he could take offense to."
"Eventually, after many incidents of his anger, we dismissed him. He did not take that well. We had to call police to escort him from the building."
Flanagan made similar claims about racism in a 2000 lawsuit filed against WTWC-TV in north Florida,. He cited "discrimination and retaliation," alleging he was called a "monkey" while an Africa-American tape operator was told to "stop talking ebonics." He sought $75,000, though the case was settled for an unspecified amount.
Days before Wednesday's attack, the Roanoke resident posted a picture of the newspaper clipping talking about his Florida suit.
The son of Betty and Vester Flanagan Sr., Flanagan was born in Oakland in 1973 where his mother worked as a teacher for over 37 years. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, according to his Twitter page, and said he once worked as a "high paid companion."
His LinkedIn profile stated that he attended San Francisco State University before working as a news intern in 1993. Flanagan says he previously worked WNCT-TV, WTWC-TV, WTOC-TV, KMID-TV, and KPIX-TV before reporting for Virginia's WDBJ-TV between March 2012 and February 2013.
Someone claiming to be Bryce Williams faxed ABC News a 23-page manifesto expressing admiration for high-profile massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007, Columbine High School in 1999, and, more recently, last June's Charleston, South Carolina church shooting that left nine people dead.
"Yes, it will sound like I am angry...I am. And I have every right to be. But when I leave this Earth, the only emotion I want to feel is peace....," the letter read. "The church shooting was the tipping point...but my anger has been building steadily...I've been a human powder keg for a while...just waiting to go BOOM!!!!"
According to WDBJ7, Flanagan died at 1:30 p.m. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while at a Northern Virginia hospital.
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