Reporter And Photographer Shot And Killed On Air In Virginia.
BANFIELD: Continuing with our breaking news, two journalists from Virginia shot dead live on the air as they broadcast to a morning show on WDBJ television. Adam Ward was manning the camera, Alison Parker was doing the live report. She was interviewing a woman named Vicki Gardner from the chambers of commerce. A woman who survived this shooting, went through surgery and ultimately is now stabilized. This is the picture right before shots rang out. But all of it evolved on television. It unraveled live in front of morning show viewers' eyes. It was distressing and disturbing and it only got worse from there at the suspected gunman, the apparent shooter posting videos under the name of Bryce Williams, that's an on-air name that a man named Vester Flanagan used to use before he was fired from that very same station under uncomfortable circumstances. He was looked at as a disgruntled employee and whomever made those posts under the name of this disgruntled employee showed an image of an -- hand holding a gun and effectively filming execution style the killing of these two journalists and the serious injury of the third. I want to bring in my colleague Nancy Grace. Nancy, before we learned that Vester Flanagan, after having shot himself, you know, had been apprehended, we thought that he had shot himself dead and he is not dead. He is in critical condition. This is a double murder execution style. The video clearly shows whomever did it if it is the person posting under Bryce Williams laid in wait and lingered for at least 20 seconds, stalking his prey. This is a death penalty state. Take it from there.</s>NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, NANCY GRACE: Well, of course, Virginia is a death penalty state and not only is it a death penalty state, it is one of the top five leaders in the amounts of death penalty sentences that are meted out. We all recall the D.C. sniper as getting the death penalty sentence. So they're not afraid of giving the death penalty. Now, Ashleigh is all this was unfolding and suddenly we hear the police announced there is no longer a high hot pursuit. What did that mean? I immediately suspected that the shooter had gone into hiding that the chase was over and that police had already killed him or he killed himself. Well, it's a mixture. The chase was over and he obviously tried to kill himself. What is this mean? In Virginia, the choices of death penalty are lethal injection or electrocution. Death penalty applies after the district attorney announces it based on considerations calling -- called qualifiers, mass shooting or more than one body is a qualifier for the death penalty in Virginia and most other jurisdictions that have it.</s>BANFIELD: Nancy, if you could stand by for one moment, I think the situation is as dire as it seemed from the get-go and with what you said equally dire. Our Evan Perez is our justice correspondent he is filing information as we speak with regard to how all of this actually happened and when the police made contact with Vester Flanagan, A.K.A. Bryce Williams. What do you know, Evan?</s>EVAN PEREZ ,CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right Ashleigh the Virginia State Police now has posted on their Facebook page the latest information that they have on how this - was concluded at 11:30 A.M. the Virginia State Police said that they spotted a suspect vehicle, this is they at mustang that they were looking for, carrying the suspected shooter. It was eastbound on interstate 66. So he had gotten pretty far from Roanoke, interstate 66 is the highway that goes from the Washington, D.C. area over to the mountains west of the city. According to the Virginia State Police, they activated the Virginia State Police activated their emergency lights to try to pull him over and when he fled the scene the police gave chase and when they finally did stop they found that he had shot himself and that's how this all ended up apparently just about an hour ago. Again, this all started about 6:30 this morning or 6:45 when the suspect fired a shot, three people during a live television broadcast. It ended at about 11:30. If you look also, you know, we've been talking about his Facebook and social media twitter and social media. In the last few days, Ashleigh there's so many pictures that he has posted including apparently testing a video device, either a GoPro or camera some kind that he was testing the last few days. He even says in some of his tweets and Facebook post that he was testing it. So this is all something now that investigators are going to be looking at and try to see again quite -- put a finer point on what motive caused him to carry out this shooting, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: I want to bring Nancy Grace back. And Nancy, that's phenomenal information that they came upon him. In that this suspect they're calling him a suspect but in other regards they're also saying the suspect is in fact Vester Flanagan, A.K.A. Bryce Williams. There is a lot of evidence that had just unraveled before our eyes in the last several hours Nancy. there is the video postings under the name of Bryce William. There is the video screen shot that the dying cameraman was to actually capture before that camera went off. And how - powerful is this going to be if this ever ends up in trial?</s>GRACE: Well, unless he dies, this is going to trial because it's my speculation that this will be a death penalty case and he certainly not going to plea guilty to that which means a trial. And they moved pretty quickly in Virginia. What it boils down to is what their pre-meditation? Everything that you have just mentioned Ashleigh screams premeditation. As you know, Ashleigh, premeditation doesn't mean a long drown out plan such as poisoning someone over a period of time but here you've got that. He has released a manifesto on multi page manifesto about his life and how he has been done wrong. As you were hearing earlier, his video journal of himself growing up and all that he's been through. He left under very bad circumstances there at the station. He hated this woman. He hated this guy. She had gotten promoted. She had gotten a job. He had been taken to H.R. by this camera guy. And you see the garage building but the moment of the shooting he had to follow them from the station parking lot to know where they're going for their on sight shoot or else hack into a computer to find out where they were going that morning. It could have been as simple as following them to the location. He came armed and ready. And as you just heard, he practiced the video shoot. How obscure is that and how damning that he practiced shooting video so he could shoot the murders?</s>BANFIELD: It is just a series of facts that have unfolded that are astounding and rarely in these cases do you get this kind of evidence, actual videotape of an execution. Again, I'm going to have to reiterate. It is posted under a Twitter account and a Facebook account of Bryce Williams with his photograph. But you can never be certain who posts what and when. I will just put that disclaimer out there. My thanks to Nancy Grace, my colleague, on this developing legal story now, Nancy, thank you, Evan Perez, as well, our justice correspondent, thank you as well. This person is in critical condition. This person survived what appears to be a suicide attempt and is in custody, presumably is also under heavy, heavy guard wherever he is being treated in critical condition. This is the last image, the last image, of Alison Parker as she interviewed Vicki Gardner and behind the lens of the person shooting this image is Adam Ward. There they are together, the morning show team, every morning, early morning, broadcasting to their viewers and this morning their viewers saw them killed. It's an astounding story and much of it, much of it traceable on social media. Coming up, my colleague Brian Stelter has tracked the presence that has been created on social media by this suspect, you will not believe how this is unfold.