opened fire, killing them both. and wounding their guest, vicky gardner. as ward lay dying, his camera captured this image of flanagan. double homicide out of franklin county. as the police pursued the shooter suspect is a black male. he began live tweeting, first sig citing grievances with parker and ward, and then posting two graphic videos of the shooting that flanagan took as he approached and killed the victims. we re only showing this image from them. a brief high-speed pursuit of flanagan followed. police finding him in his wrecked car, severely wounded from a self-inflicted gunshot. as he was air lifted to the hospital where he eventually died, they went back on the news. we have determined through the help of the police and our own employees that alison and adam died this morning shortly after 6:45 when the shots rang
learning today? reporter: good morning, jose. people are coming forward with their experiences dealing with vester flanagan who went by the name bryce williams when he was a report here. a lot of those stories paint a picture of a man who was quick to anger over perceived slights, one who was required by station management to seek counselling following repeated conflicts with colleagues. he seemed to have a short fuse, something didn t go his way. he didn t fit in because people found it difficult to work with him. and so after a while and a number of incidents, we thought it was best if he left the company. and he did but not happily. he had to get some assistance from the police to get him out of here. reporter: and the station was filming as flanagan was fired and removed from the building that day. the man behind the camera was adam ward.
whole. grain. oats. developing now, we re learning more about the gunman who fatally shot two journalists on live tv in virginia. the sheriff has identified vester flanagan as the shooter who killed reporter alison parker and photojournalist adam ward. flanagan was fired from his job at that same tv station in 2013 for anger issues. former colleagues describe him as difficult to work with. let s go to roanoke, virginia. nbc s sarah dallof joins us. good morning. what new details are you
recorded video of the shooting and uploaded it to social media as he was on the run, is that unusual? it is very unusual and it s something that we haven t seen too much of. we have to be cognizant, this is an individual who showed admiration for the shooters at virginia tech and columbine high school. and therefore being part of that club, if you will, had to do something that was different. he had to do something that was innovative and he did that, regrettably, by shooting these individuals on live television and then tweeting it and doing social media. so that was the horrific part of that. and a man claiming to be flanagan sent a 23-page fax to abc news after the shooting saying he suffered racial discrimination and bullying at work and was attacked for being black and gay. he also wrote about the recent charleston church massacre, quote, the church shooting was a
police are looking for a four-door toyota reporter: posting his resume online, hired, then fired at a station in tallahassee in 2000. as time went on, he kind of devolved into kind of a difficult guy to work with, to the point where he had such conflict going on with the studio crew, for instance, that it almost became a physical thing. reporter: and as for his firing here in the roanoke market, jose, those court documents obtained by nbc news show that when it happened, after it happened, the weekend after, off-duty police officers were stationed on wdbj property and employees were warned to call 911 if they saw flanagan trying to approach. as for what s next in this investigation, the local sheriff here who knew both alison and adam had just done an interview with them a few weeks ago says this is just the beginning of what will be a very long process. jose? hallie jackson, thank you very much.