After the tragic shooting of a reporter and photographer during a live television broadcast in Virginia, President Obama has spoken out on Wednesday morning's events.
Associated Press reports, President Obama was saddened by the killings of reporter, Alison Parker and her photographer Adam Ward. "It breaks my heart every time" he said anytime he hears of these types of incidents.
He also took that moment to comment on gun-control in America, stating, "What we know is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism."
The gunman, named Vester Flanagan, shot and killed Alison Parker and Adam Ward, before fatally shooting himself.
Vester Flanagan was a former employee of WDBJ-TV who was fired in 2013. Flanagan then secured a job at a Virginia-based call center for health insurer UnitedHealthcare. At this time, a spokesman for UnitedHealthcare advises he worked at the center for more than year, but declined to disclose whether he displayed any signs of illness or trouble while working there.
However, former co-workers from television stations have informed AP that he was a "loner" who did not seem to play well with others. A former co-worker said "Vester Flanagan was 'off-kilter' and he thought news anchoring was about "acting."
Kimberly Moore Wilmoth worked with Flanagan in 1999 at a TV station in Tallahassee. She recalls "he didn't laugh at our jokes or at himself when he would make a mistake."
"Wilmoth describes Flanagan as a loner who didn't socialize with other reporters. She says he got mad when co-workers made light of on-air mistakes. She recounted one story in which he filmed an elderly man trapped inside a car during a flood even though the man was calling out for help," reports AP.
Willmoth further added, "Instead of helping the man, he used the man as a prop."
WDBJ has now turned their property outside the studios into a tribute to slain reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Many reporters from other media outlets have gathered Wednesday evening outside of the station for a news conference. WDBJ's news director, Kelly Zuber ,says the station is setting up scholarships at the alma maters of Parker and Ward. Parker graduated from James Madison University and Ward went to Virginia Tech.
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