many people and made so much of the time that she had. is that helping? it is. the out pouring from the community and the nation at large, obviously this is a big story nationally. that has been a comfort. she was such a special person. she was loved by everyone and it was she touched a lot of lives. and it shows the in the tributes. i have not watched any television. i didn t see any of the recounts. i didn t want to. but after the fact i have heard how much she has been loved and i certainly it doesn t
her cameraman adam ward you a also killed of he was just engaged and planning his wedding to another employee at wdbj. a third victim of the shooting today was the woman being interviewed on the air. her name is vicki gardener, a local fwl the claim better of commerce. she s survived. she went through surgery today and she is expected to recover from her injuries. wed we know the gunman was a former employee. it is clear he discussed the shooting publicly. it is clear he was intent on carrying out this attack in a way that made it as made for tv as possible. he not only committed the murder on live television, he also filmed the attack himself and posted the resulting video on facebook. we will not be showing any of that tonight. i don t want him to help him do what he wanted tooted. this terrible story was the national news story today, understandably for all the obvious reasons. it is also the national news
unacceptable. it s just you know, 20 kids 20 little kids died in the sandy hook shooting, six adults, including erica s mom. we as a country didn t do anything. that s disgraceful, you know? and i said the nra and craven, irresponsible politicians, but it s the rest of us, you whichi including me. we didn t do enough to support those parents when they tried to get legislation through congress. we need to do more. every day in this country, 88 americans are shot and killed. it s ridiculous. we need to do better. erica, final question to you. for everyone watching right now, hanging on both of your every word, what one thing today can people do?
this objectively. i continue to be awe struck by their composure on camera and yet i was looking at pictures in the newsroom earlier this morning before they were on air. you can tell that they are a wreck. some of these staffers have been crying before going on air. they have been as we heard at the press conference, noticing little bits and pieces reminding them of their colleagues and they can feel that pain in a very real way and yet they go on and do broadcast. just now after the broadcast, the anchor locally said she was thanking the community for all of the donations, all of the food, all of the e-mails, the flowers. she said there s been too many to count from the community members and perhaps that s because, like you and i, everyone is so impressed by their performance there. when we talk about how they are covering this, we also part of the discussion today has been how other media outlets have been covering this. oh, yes. there s a juxtapose position. i ll show
the pins. yes. we re wearing ribbons today and we ll continue to wear those as long as we can. they represent adam and alison. the maroon represents virginia tech and adam s love for virginia tech and the teal was just alison s favorite color. so one of our reporters put this together for us and we appreciate her efforts and it really helps solidify our feelings about them and show everyone about how we feel. thank you. a lot of questions have been asked about the employment situation of vester flanagan, also known as bryce williams. i want to put it together in a statement and we ll distribute copies of the statement and i want to thank everyone for coming out and joining us for this because we re all in this together. i m going to read the statement. be glad to take questions.