killing them both. let s listen in as we have been waiting now for the franklin county sheriff s office and they ll fill us in on the details as they know them. test, one, two. everybody hear? yes, sir. okay. good afternoon. i m sheriff bill overton with the franklin county sheriff s office. i m here today with a sorrowful heart from the tragic event that is have taken place earlier this morning. i just want to make sure that through this we continue to keep our prayers and thoughts with the family of alison parker and aaron wade. excuse me, aaron ward. as well as the wdbj channel 7 news family. first and foremost, i m at approximately 1:30 p.m. today
ward and i are putting the final touches on our special report. alison grew up in martinsville and add am in salem. alison was a graduate of james madison university and loved the outside. in salem, adam ward, news 7 sports. and add am attended salem high school where he played football, a virginia tech graduate and big hokies fan. alison worked at a station in jacksonville, north carolina before she returned to wdbj 7 in 2014. adam had been here for four years, first as an employee of our production department and more recently as a photographer in news. he and alison had been working together on wdbj 7 morning a little over a year covering everything from community events to breaking news, and they did it well. and both of them had fallen in love with co-workers. adam was engaged to our morning producer melissa ott. they were planning their wedding
out via the media, that all works to our advantage. the public certainly was well aware of what happened this morning. somebody could have spotted him and got on their cell phone and made a phone call. consistent with this guy s mental makeup and what he did, he had a game plan. he certainly had a plan a and b and he knew how this was going to play out it sounds like or appears to be that way. who knows what his m.o. was or his motive. they ll be checking out everything. the investigators will take a look at the suspect s cell phones. maybe he had a personal vendetta against one of them, who knows. was he texting them? i and no there was some alleged things going on this morning by him into the station itself. i m happy it ended the way the idid. lenny, stay with me here. i want to reset the scene for viewers who were just tuning in. this morning at 6:45 a.m. during a live report on a local news station, wdbj down there in the roanoke area, two journalists were shot and killed, murde
job somewhere else. but he remained in town because every now and then someone would run into him at the grocery store or someplace like that. but, kelly, i don t recall getting a report of any run ins or difficult situations in the i m talking to kelly zuber, our director of news. . jeff, we want to talk a little bit more. it s right at news so let s summarize for people turning in at noon for wdbj. vesterly flanagan, bryce williams was here as a reporter of wdbj 7 until he was let go. there s his picture. you will recognize him no doubt. he has shot and killed himself. he was the suspect in this morning s deadly shooting of our own alison parker and adam ward
hour something that hits extraordinarily close to home for so many of us having grown up in journalism. i just absolutely feel for these two young lives, two individuals who were murdered as it was captured on live television this morning, two young beloved employees at wdbj in roanoke, virginia and just, again, pausing to send my condolences to the newsroom there into the families of both of these young people, two young journalists, 24-year-old alison parker and 27-year-old adam ward shot and killed while they were doing what they loved, telling stories in their communities and they were shot and killed by a man, a former reporter, disgruntled employee at this very same space. legally his name vester flanagan on the air went by the name bryce williams. we ve now heard from law enforcement that he died at 1 31:30 p.m. eastern after turning the gun on himself, eluding police,