Virginia TV News Gunman Fled North
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: After the shooting, Vester Lee Flanigan faxed a 22-page suicide note to ABC News under the name Bryce Williams. The name he used on the air and used until he was fired. In the note, he details a long list of grievances and expresses admiration for the Virginia Tech and Columbine shooters. Flanigan, an African-American, points to the Charleston church massacre as a spark for his crime. He writes, "The church shooting was the tipping point, but my anger has been building steadily. I have been a human powder keg for a while just waiting to go boom." He claims he was the target of racism in the workplace and previous employers blocked him from getting a new job, writing, "I tried to pull myself up from the bootstraps, but the damage was already done. And when somebody gets to this point, there is nothing that can be said or done to change their sadness to happiness. It does not work that way. Meds? Nah, it's just too much." For more on the shooting and the gunman's troubled history, let's bring in CNN's Brian Todd in Roanoke, Virginia.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Miguel, we have information on the shooter's movements from the moments of the shooting early Wednesday morning. Authorities say that he left from this location and drove northwest toward the Roanoke Regional Airport, where he switched cars. He then drove nearly 200 miles up I-81 to Route 66, was heading east toward Washington when a state police trooper spotted him and spotted the vehicle through the license plate of his car. This trooper approached him. He refused to stop. He then went off the road. And it was then that they observed that he had self- inflicted gunshot wound. He died a couple hours after that. Investigators were able to track his movements through his cell phone. Also, we have some new threads in the investigation into his past. I talked to two people who worked with the shooter, Vester Flanigan at two different television stations. One is WDBJ, not far from here in Roanoke, where these two journalists also worked, and another worked with him at WTOC TV in Savannah, Georgia. Both of those former employees told me that he was a troubled employee, he had trouble getting along with people, that he was struggling as a reporter. We know that he was fired from WDBJ for performance-related issues. And one of the former employees of that station told me that on the day he was fired in February of 2013, they had to bring in police to escort him out. He made threats. He was very agitated and that some members of the news staff had to actually evacuate the building and go on lockdown at that time. We also have found out that in the year 2000, he filed a lawsuit against another former station of his WTWC in Tallahassee, Florida. That lawsuit alleged some racist mistreatment directed toward him. He alleged in that lawsuit that he was called a "monkey" by a superior -- by an executive producer at that station and there were other epithets and other things directed toward him. That lawsuit was settled out of court. So, clearly, this man was a disgruntled former employee of at least two television stations, including the one here where these two deceased journalists worked -- Alison and Miguel.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's turn our attention to the victims of the crime -- reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, and a Chamber of Commerce official Vicki Gardner who Parker and Ward were interviewing for WDBJ's morning show. Even on that early shift, their boss tells CNN the pair always maintained a cheerful can- do attitude.</s>JEFF MARKS, WDBJ GENERAL MANAGER: If I walked in the building in the morning, and I saw Alison and Adam first, I knew I was in for smiles. They had a great attitude. And it showed in their work. Adam was always willing to do whatever extra was needed, even at the end of a long shift when he gotten up at 3:00 in the morning. Alison would get involved in any project and do whatever he was asked to do and she was showing such solid growth as a reporter and occasionally as an anchor.</s>KOSIK: For more on the three victims, let's turn to CNN's Victor Blackwell in Roanoke.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison, Miguel, understandably, the team at WDBJ is heartbroken this morning, their first morning in a while without waking up with the A team, as they called them. Alison Parker and Adam Ward, the reporter and photographer who worked the morning shift. Now, we knew that Alison Parker had just turned 24 years old. She graduated from James Madison and worked in North Carolina, but returned home to southwest Virginia. And she grew up about 50 miles outside of Roanoke. Her colleagues say that she was living her dream. Now, one part of Parker's life that viewers just learned about yesterday was that she was also dating one of the anchors there at WDBJ, Chris Hurst. He sent this out on social media, "She was the most radiant woman I ever met and for some reason, she loved me back." And we also had learned that Adam Ward was also in love with someone there at the station. He was engaged to the morning show producer. And imagine this -- his fiancee was producing the show during the time he was killed on live television. A colleague also says that Ward was someone who always had a smile on his face and dedicated to the job and was determined to put smiles on other faces as well. Now, let's talk about the sole survivor of this attack, Vicki Gardner. She is the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber and Commerce. And friends say that, yes, that was her title. However, she really did anything she could to promote this community that she loves so much. She is a wife, mother, a grandmother as well, and artist. We got this message from her employer late yesterday when they say that they are confident that she will recover and they're going to stand strong with her through this -- Miguel, Alison.</s>MARQUEZ: Alison Parker's grieving father paid tribute to his daughter last night, fittingly with a television appearance in which he praised her finest qualities. He conveyed a passionate message about gun regulation.</s>ANDY PARKER, FATHER OF ALISON PARKER: She lived a great life. She excelled at everything she did. She loved what she did. She loved the people she worked with. She was happy with her place in life. So, you know, we can only take some solace in the fact she had a wonderful life, she was extremely and she loved this guy with all her heart. And that's the toughest thing for me, that she -- everybody that she touched loved her and she loved everybody back. And, you know, I'm not going to let this issue drop. This is, you know, we've got to do something about crazy people getting guns.</s>KOSIK: So heartbreaking. The gunman's family in northern California is seeking privacy this morning, but expressing condolences for the victims' families. Their statement read by a family friend who went to high school with the shooter. She calls the shooting, quote, "a shock to everybody."</s>AMBER BOWMAN, FRIEND OF VESTER FLANAGAN'S FAMILY: It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness we express our deepest condolences of the families of Alison Parker and Adam Ward. We are praying for the recovery of Vicki Gardner. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and with WDBJ television station family.</s>MARQUEZ: Now, President Obama calls the shooting of the two Virginia journalists heartbreaking. He is challenging lawmakers to end the bottleneck on gun control, insisting Americans need to keep the pressure on.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we know is the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happened through terrorism. We are willing to spend trillions of dollars to prevent terrorist activities, but we haven't been willing, so far at least, to impose some common sense gun safety measures that could save some lives.</s>CLINTON: The tragedy in Roanoke is also igniting the gun control on the campaign trail. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton calling on Congress to come up with legislation that tightens restrictions on guns without infringing on the constitutional rights of Americans. But Republican candidate Marco Rubio claims there is no need to do that.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: First of all, it's not just crazy people. It's the violent people. It's not the guns. It's the people that are doing this. And so, here's the problem that I have.</s>RUBIO: First of all, the Second Amendment is in the Constitution. I didn't write the Constitution, but I support it. And I think the Second Amendment is an important part of the Constitution that needs to be adhered to.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is so much evidence that if guns were not so readily available, if we had universal background checks, maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage.</s>KOSIK: Most of the Republican candidates tweeted their condolences to those who knew and loved Alison and Adam, without commenting on gun control.</s>MARQUEZ: Now, we will continue the cover the latest on the on-air murder of the Virginia journalists all morning. But first, will Vice President Joe Biden run? The vice president on the record about the possibility of him entering the race for president. That's coming up right up.