again, that s when these local tv station reporters were doing a live shot and they were fired upon, allegedly by vester flanagan. again, a dismissed former employee from the same station, worked with these two. we ve seen images on social media of them together. pete, do you know more, though, about the timeline? and again, just to inform our viewers, 2:00 p.m. we re waiting for franklin county sheriff s office to give us an update. but do you know more about the timeline of when police were able to get a lead on flanagan? and how that corresponds with those social media postings that he was able to upload via twitter and facebook? reporter: getting a lead on him happened very quickly after the shooting because there is a freeze frame, a still frame that police were able to take from the actual camera that the cameraman was holdings. this is it. several frames of video apparently show the suspect
toward the live shot, where his two former colleagues were interviewing vicki gardner. she is a member of the local chamber of commerce. that video then ends. in the second video, it picks up with him being on top of the trifecta, the way that the interview was taking place, of the reporter on the far left, vicki gardner in the middle, the cameraman facing both of them, not being able to see flanagan behind him. then you see from the perspective of the actual video a gun raise up into the frame and then he begins to fire. these are images that were uploaded, again, via facebook and twitter. those social media accounts were quickly taken down. they are absolutely jarring. he takes first aim at alison parker, just 24 years old, fires several shots at her. then turns the gun on 27-year-old adam ward. one of his last acts as his camera drops to the ground is actually capturing an image of flanagan. as you can see right there, this is the camera tilted on its
see it there in the center of your screen, veered off the road. apparently virginia state police spotted that vehicle that was headed eastbound on i-66. the imagiemergency traffic ligh were activated. when the troopers initiated a traffic stop, the suspect refused, sped away and minutes later crashed off to the side of the road. virginia state police say then flanagan shot himself. they believed it to be life-threatening injuries. he was taken off, and we had video of that earlier, video of him on a stretcher being loaded into the back of an ambulance. our pete williams saying that he was going to be moved he had updated information to a hospital closer to washington, d.c. flanagan was wanted after taking aim and opening fire on live television this morning after two of his colleagues for roanoke tv station wdbj, were on an early morning live shot interview with the chamber of commerce, and they were on the air at 6:45 a.m.
with this station including making a lot of complaints regarding race and other things and they say he opened fire shooting and killing two people while they were on air. alison parker, 24 years old, the reporter. adam ward, the photojournalist. he was engaged to a young woman who also worked at the station. she was in the control room. she would have watched and heard the gunshots that ended up killing the love of her life. parker was dating an anchor at the station. he later tweeted out that they had been dating for nine months and were very much in love. about two hours after the shooting, abc news received a fax from flanagan. in it he made a litany of complaints. it was a 23-page-long rant talking about mass shootings and complaints of racial discrimination, those things he said he felt as though he had been discriminated against because he was a black gay man. there is a third victim in this ca case.
we continue to follow the breaking news out of virginia where right now there are reports that the suspect wanted in the deaths of a local reporter and her photographer has taken his own life. vester flanagan shot himself, according to authorities. we re working to get more information. we ll continue to follow the breaking news coverage here on msnbc. up next, luke russert. i m only in my 60 s. i ve got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn t pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan.