this was a very based on preliminarily reports, a very deranged individual with a lot of problems over a long period of time. we have a lot of mental health problems our country, as do other countries, but this isn t a guns situation, i mean, we could go into it, but it s a little bit soon to go into it. reporter: the president s comment that it s too early to talk about guns mirrors his response to the las vegas massacre from just over a month ago. and we ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by. reporter: as for the president s korean for the mentally ill, critics noted that earlier this year mr. trump signed a measure terminating an obama-era regulation designed to keep guns out of the hands with people with serious psychological issues. even members of the president s own party were conceding that more can be done. i never felt that anybody on a no-fly list should be able to get a gun, for example. reporter: the church shooting in text threw the president off scri
most recently he had been live for the morning show when the schools opened. he was watching, himself, this morning when the shooting took place. he said he wasn t even sure what he was looking at. he was just shocked when he heard the gun shots ring out. chris? thank you so much, adam reese. i m joined by vice mayor of roanoke, also a psychiatrist. what do you make of this and what do you know about it that you can help us with this tragedy? it s clearly a tragedy, chris. another tragedy inflicted by a disturbed individual. our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of alison and adam and the whole community. we re a small community here and everybody s been impacted today by this senseless tragedy. and again, it can happen anywhere. today it happened in southwest virginia. was alison parker a figure
around 6:45 this morning. here s what happened just prior to the shooting. this is our community, and we want to come together, we want to share information that can help us grow and develop to provide a better experience. we re seeing tourism. we want the people that come here to say just moments after that, a series of shots rang out and the camera dropped to the ground. the suspect has been identified as vester flanagan, also known as bryce williams, who worked for the same television station, but was fired two years ago. a screen grab from the camera as it dropped to the ground showed the killer appearing to aim his gun. here s where things got even more disturbing. someone tweeting from an account under the suspect s name, being very careful here, began sending messages about the killings. he made allegations about the victims and complained about mistreatment. he also posted a video, both on twitter and on a facebook account, showing the shooting from the murderer s perspec
i m joined right now by adam reese who is in virginia, where the shooting occurred this morning. adam, what do we know about the suspect? reporter: chris, we re learning more about vester flanagan as you just heard from the sheriff. disturbed, his life spiraling out of control. in and out of local tv stations over a number of years. he had serious anger issues. he was always looking for grievances, someone to say something to him so he could file a grievance. most recently here in roanoke, he had to be escorted out of the building when he was fired. he wrote a suicide note, a fax to abc news in new york, 23 pages. he calls it a suicide note for friends and family. he said in part, quote, 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. the sheriff this morning said he had worked with this crew, alison and adam, a number of times.
i don t know if they re ready for the scrutiny. but i asked one of his people, well, how long does he need to decide? i mean, what else does he need to know? and the answer to that, i think, is what else comes out of the pressure they feel in terms of family and also, how long, as carol was saying, how long they can wait to see just how vulnerable hillary is. unfortunately for joe biden, he can t wait until after the benghazi hearing. he s got to decide before that. or before the debate. so he s in by the late part of september probably, or out, right? they said end of summer. that s the 23rd of september. aren t we up to date on that stuff? [ laughter ] when we return, we ll get back to the shooting of the two journalists. this is a stark on-air tragedy that we ve all become a part of by watching it. this is hardball, the place for politics. n electric toothbrh was going to clean better than a manual. he said sure. but don t get just any one. get one inspired by dentists.