Virginia this morning. He talked with alisons boyfriend and her father earlier. Tell us more, chris. Carol in these situations the big question is always why. And maybe the best way to have something positive come out of this is to remind us of what is lost and the value of human life involved, that maybe it moved an unsettled soul to think before they commit violence. And we have beautiful opportunities to get to know who was lost and understand the value that these people held, even at this young age. 24yearold Alison Parker, 27yearold adam ward. The father wanted even in his pain to let people know what was missing now in his life and what the situation means to him. Heres some of what he had to say. Its sense less that her life and adams life were taken by a crazy person with a gun. And if i have to be the john walsh of gun control and look, im for the Second Amendment, but there has to be a way to force politicians that are cowards and in the pockets of the nra to come to grips and have sensible laws so that crazy people cant get guns. It cant be that hard. And yet politicians from the local level to the state level to the national level, they sidestep the issue, they kick the can down the road. This cant happen anymore because alison was one of you guys. This has got to hit home for journalists. She would be texting me right now, saying, dad, what did you think of my story. What did you think of it . Im never going to hear that again. She was so loved by all. And my heart is broken. But i want to try and do something that will change that and make her life will do something meaningful for her life so this doesnt happen to someone else again. She was a special young lady and i think people across the country and certainly around here realize that. We at least take solace in the fact that she lived she was only 24. She just turned 24 last week. And she packed in a great life in 24 years. She did a lot of things. And she was most of all, she was happy with what she was doing. She loved what she was doing. She loved her family. She loved chris very much. At least we know from the Law Enforcement officials she didnt suffer. And you know she led a happy life. But i just wish i could touch her soul right now. Because im sorry. I its tough for me right now. Of course its tough for him right now, carol. And you know, as you well know and you handle these situations very delicately. You dont want to make something more difficult for a man, a parent in andys position. He believes things need to change. And he deserves that opportunity, especially now. And her boyfriend, chris hurst, is an anchor here at wdbj, what the community is calling their news family. And he wants people to know that alison was only 24, but she was so much more than her age. She had lived so much. And she had given him a love for nine months that most people never have in their lives. Our love story is just like, i think, adam and melissas. And real quick, adam was the best boyfriend and fiance. Way better than me. Going the extra mile to prove his love to melissa was something that i have never seen before. And the way he proposed to her was elaborate and well executed. They were going to be a wonderful married couple. What did he do . He said it up so that she was exactly where he wanted to be, got down on one knee. And always made melissa feel special. These were two people like myself who maybe never thought they could get that kind of love and they got it. It was at the christmas Station Party last year, the way she looked. Youve seen her. Beautiful, stunning. And the energy that came out of her also. Inside and out. I saw her at the Christmas Party wearing this gold sequinned dress. And everybody said she looked a little bit like taylor swift. And she had this beautiful red lipstick on. I stood in the corner and said, chris, youve got to do something or youre a fool. And something came over me. And i went up and made my move and asked her out a couple of days later. And we had our first date on january 1st. You said you felt tremendously lucky. You couldnt believe she returned the affection. Yes. Im not one to really put myself out there for dating. Its a tough job that we have. And we dont get a lot of free time. People in the business tend to know each other and get each other and we got each other. Something came over me and i decided to go for it. We were both so lucky that that occurred because she told me and her parents told me last night that she was the love of my life and i was the love of her life. These situations, we see them so often and every one has its own special qualities and all of them share the same horrible questions. For all the unknowns that remain, carol, we hope for a better discussion than what weve had in the past. But you never know. What is known is that this young women and this young man were very special people to those in their lives and those in this community that they touched. You know, we remember victims like this in each and other incident that happens where gun violence is to blame. And nothing is ever done and nothing ever changes because people hide behind their old tired arguments. And ill just say it. It makes me angry. It just makes me angry. I think thats understandable. I think its an emotion thats shared here on the ground and in the community. And you know, yet this woman came up to me yesterday and shes been here her whole life. What she spoke about was the anger, that theres too much of it and not the righteous one that youre discussing, but how people treat one another and how they voice their own problems and how they deal with whats going on inside of them and how we treat each other. And yes, guns, yes, Mental Illness. When you tell a story about what is lost and how beautiful these people were and how much they had to offer, you hope that if nothing else that may move an unsettled soul to think before they decide to hurt others. I wish i could believe you, but i dont think so, because the answer to rage in this country has become, hey, you disrespected me, im just going to pull a gun and ill cull my rage that way. We have to get rid of that. We dont have respect for guns anymore. Look, i hear you. Y youre making smart points. Know what the status of the debate is, we know what the questions are. This country for all the talk about money and politics and corruption has always ultimately been what the people want to make it. And these situation raise the same questions every time. Where it leads often winds up making the hope for change just that, only hope. And you just hope that it gets better and the conversation is had. More than anything else, we want the people who remember who was lost here and remember what it means to their loved ones. Thanks. Well get back to you. I appreciate it. To the tabloids here in new york the daily news and the post are facing outrage today for their shocking front pages. Im not going to show you the front pages. I have them right here. But on the pages of both are freeze frames of the camera. Angry tweets. Just went to get coffee and saw the covers. Cant believe their front covers. And then in all caps disrespectful. Another tweet, the entire daily News Editorial Team should be fired. And this,almost tweeted out the appalling deal daily news cover before realizing thats exactly what theyre trying to get you to do. With me now roanoke mayor david bowers and marly e ly otoole. I want to get your reaction to these covers. I havent seen them. But they remind me of matthew bra brady, the civil war photographer who took pictures of the battle scenes of the civil war. They were appalling and provocative at the time but they helped the American People begin to understand the horrors of war. I mean, at some point when are we going to understand the horrors of gun violence in our country. How many massacres do we have to have at Virginia Tech or Church Shootings in charleston or Movie Theater shootings in lafayette, louisiana, or shooting of journalists here in roanoke before the public cries out and says what it is that they want us to do. We just havent reached a consensus on this in america in my opinion. It is interesting what you say about these tabloid covers though, mr. Mayor. You say in some way maybe they can show the horror of gun violence and maybe something will be done . I guess, again, i would say that was the effect that Matthew Brady had 150 years ago on the American Public. Theyre horrible pictures, i would guess. Ive not seen them. The shooting itself was live on television here in roanoke. I didnt see it. I saw the film afterwards. Its horrible and sickening and maybe it will cause us to think about the horror of gun violence in our country and how it seems to be more and more prevalent. And innocent people are dying. I knew Alison Parker. I knew of adam ward. I didnt deal with them as closely. She was bright and intelligent and she just had a great energy in the mornings here at wdbj. I think everybody did love her and the community is mourning the loss that these two roanokers today. This killer, he was never deemed mentally ill, so he was easily able to buy a gun, right . I dont know the circumstances of that. He bought a gun. These are the circumstances that cnn uncovered. So he was easily able to buy this gun. Mr. Mayor, what is the answer in your mind to stemming gun violence . Do we need gun control laws . I think people ought to go back to church. I think in america people ought to go back to church. I have a saying on a plaque in my house. When life gets to be too much for you,just kneel. Thats what i believe. I think people ought to pray more. We are praying for these poor souls now. Were praying for these families. Were praying for these wdbj employees family. Were worried in communities about these things happening. One thing is to pray, go to church, do positive things instead of all the crazy things in our society we seem to be doing with drugs and Domestic Violence and drinking and all the other things that seem to be awful in our society now. I also believe in the power of prayer, mr. Mayor. I also believe in the power of pr pr prayor and i believe deeply in god. But i believe praying would be the solviolence in our country. There has to be a lot of thought, a lot of prayer, a lot of consensus building. To my way of thinking, thats the very first thing weve got to do. Thank you so much for joining me. I so appreciate it. Now id like to focus on you mary ellen. Thanks for standing by and waiting. I appreciate it. I really want to find some answer to this, if possible. There were many signs in this mans past that he exhibited volatile behavior, that there was something unbalanced about him. But as far as we know, he never got help. Right. Thats a problem. But as i am listening to all of this information come out about him, there are other people clearly in the United States who are evolving down the same road that he did yesterday. And the one thing that Law Enforcement really needs to do in working with companies, in working with schools and universities is this. Our Mental Health system is broken. Got that. The gun control argument is at a stalemate. Got that. But when you do have someone that youre firing or expelling from school and they manifest these kinds of behaviors, you cannot just boot them out the door and hope your problem is gone. There really has to be some way to monitor them, which maeeans that you may have to pay an off duty officer or a private investigator for the next five years to go by and check on them. For five years . He was fired from that television station two years ago. I understand that. When you have someone as volatile as this, its very extreme. Most people you fire, theyre upset and they leave. When you have someone as volatile as this one, they have to be monitored. Until we can fix the Mental Health system, those are the recommendations we made in the fbi to employers, to schools, you have to monitor this person. And that just means going by and checking on them. Im just saying, so you were putting the onus on employers and to monitor someone for five years can be an expensive proposition. How is that even possible . Well, people do it, though. Its not a fulltime job. But clearly youre very sensitive to this. We dont have a Mental Health system where you can take somebody and put them away. And that will probably never happen anyway. So what weve found works the best is to just stay in touch with the person, see if theyre getting worse, if their hatred, if their attitudes are deteriorating and if theyre talking about buying guns and in fact they are buying guns, because from the information right now he was legal in purchasing that gun. So short of everything thaeelse thats not working, im just saying we would make that recommendation in the fbi, not all the time and not really frequently. But every now and then if somebody was that concerning to us, we would tell that company you have to do something to monitor them. Mary ellen otoole, thank for your insight. I appreciate it. Youre welcome. Just moments ago the morning team held a moment of silence for their fallen colleagues and we will too. It was yesterday around this time that we went live to Alison Parker and photo journalist adam ward. They were at Bridgewater Plaza near Smith Mountain lake to report on a happy event, the 50th anniversary of the lake, just a feature. The peacefulness of our community was shattered. As we approach that moment, we want to pause and reflect what made these two so special, not just to us, but to all of our hometowns that wdbj7 serves. Please join us now in a moment of silence. woman you want to eat. 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It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness we express our deepest con doll edolences to t families of Alison Parker and adam ward. We are also praying for the recovery of vicki gardener. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and with wdbj station family. In the meantime were learning new details about what motivated the killer, including the plan for yesterdays attack that seemingly began weeks ago. Reporter the day he was fired from wdbj tv february 1st, 2013, the shooter told his bosses im not leaving, youre going to have to call the efing police. Colleagues say he threw a tantrum. Police did indeed escort him out of the newsroom. Internal mem rows obtained by cnn show his brief one year employment was racked with aggressive behavior, poor journalistic performance. At one point the station referred him to mandatory counselling. After his firing form eer colleagues tell cnn they were concerned for days he would come back. Jeff marks is the stations general manager. It was i guess a little bothersome he was still in town and would be seen by our employe employees. Again, what do you do . He sued the station for discrimination, the suit dismissed last summer. Record show he worked at tv stations in greenville, north carolina, savannah georgia. And he was fire from a station in tallahassee, florida for what the news director described as odd behavior. A lawsuit filed alleging racial discrimination. The suit dismissed. Hours after the shooting he writes alison made racist comments meaning Alison Parker the reporter he killed but never worked with. Its unclear if he ever seeceve met. He writes eeoc report filed. At tweet, adam went to hr with me after working with me one time. He meant the stations Human Resources department. Adam was adam ward, the photographer killed. The station says no one saw this coming. He did make some accusations against people some time ago. You can never imagine that somebodys going to come back and act on those issues that were so old. About a week ago the shooter started posting pictures, an apparent life history, highlighted from his childhood, high school and beyond. And in the rambling 23page fax to abc news he said his plan was to kill after the charleston shootings earlier this summer. Later he writes, administration for the south Korean National mass killer responsible for the shootings at Virginia Tech and the Columbine High School killers. His final tweet, i filmed the shooting. See facebook. Drew griffin, cnn washington. With me now cornell west. Hes a professor, author and activist with black lives matter. Did race play a factor in this killers rampage . We dont know. The fundamental question is how do you get at this spiritual decay a