TV shooting survivor's husband recounts story before gunfire

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ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — The woman who survived the on-air shooting that killed two TV journalists says she never saw the gunman walk up to the group because the camera's bright light blinded her.

Vicki Gardner, a chamber of commerce official, was answering questions about the community on live TV when the gunfire erupted. She was wounded as she fell to the ground after hearing the first gunshots, her husband said Friday.

The gunman, Vester Flanagan, ambushed WDBJ-TV cameraman Adam Ward and reporter Alison Parker during the interview Wednesday at the Smith Mountain Lake Visitor Center. Gardner is executive director of the resort area's chamber of commerce.

The first four shots were aimed at Parker, and two more were aimed at Ward, Gardner's husband Tim said in a telephone interview from the hospital where she is recovering. Then he fired at Gardner, though his first couple of shots missed her.

"And then when she dove down and got shot, he stopped shooting and took off," he said. "But she wasn't sure he was gone so she just laid there playing possum until first responders showed up."

Flanagan fired 17 shots from a Glock pistol, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Friday. The writings and evidence seized from Flanagan's apartment showed the man "closely identified" with people who have committed mass murders, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Parker and Ward died of gunshot wounds to the head and body. Vicki Gardner was shot in the back.

Flanagan shot himself to death after a police chase. Flanagan, a former reporter at WDBJ, was fired from the station in 2013 for poor performance and conflicts with co-workers, who said he was always claiming to be the victim.

Parker's boyfriend, WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst, said Parker went on an assignment with Flanagan when she was an intern and innocently remarked that her friend lived on "Cotton Hill Road." Flanagan accused her of making a racist remark, something he apparently did often.

"She did not really know what he was upset about, specifically. She just knew that she felt uncomfortable being around him, as did many, many other people at the station," Hurst said.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe met privately with station employees to share his condolences. The 50 or so workers have been described as a close-knit group, and they have continued reporting on their slain colleagues in the face of the tragedy.

"The courage and determination they showed is truly, truly extraordinary," McAuliffe said outside the station.

The governor talked about his support for universal background checks and said he and Alison Parker's dad, Adam, would fight for tougher gun laws.

"There are too many guns in America and there are clearly too many guns in the wrong hands," the governor said. But McAuliffe, himself a gun owner, also conceded that Flanagan had passed a background check.

Parker's boyfriend, not yet ready to take a stance on gun laws because he is a journalist, instead remembered the couple's whitewater kayaking trip just one week ago.

"We went past a special place on the river where she turned to me and she said, 'Chris, this is where I want to get married. Wouldn't this be wonderful?' And so now we're going to place her ashes there."

___

Associated Press reporter Allen Breed in Roanoke contributed to this report.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Had some physical confrontations with a couple of people, and at one point became such a distraction that we finally had to terminate him.

–Don Shafer, XETV news director


"Had some physical confrontations with a couple of people, and at one point became such a distraction that we finally had to terminate him," said Shafer, now news director with XETV in San Diego.

After stints in California, Florida and North Carolina, Flanagan's last television job was at WDBJ in Roanoke.

Others who ran across Flanagan after he lost his job at WDBJ described a man increasingly irked by slights more often imagined than real.

A former co-worker at a UnitedHealthcare call center where Flanagan worked until late 2014 said he tried to grab her shoulder and told her never to speak to him again after she offhandedly said he was unusually quiet.

The manager of a bar in Roanoke said Flanagan was so incensed when no one thanked him for his business as he left the tavern that he sent a nearly 20-page letter, lambasting employees' behavior.

Flanagan described himself in a court document as an aggrieved and unappreciated victim.

"How heartless can you be? My entire life was disrupted after moving clear across the country for a job only to have my dream turn into a nightmare," Flanagan wrote in a letter to a judge filed as part of his 2013 lawsuit against WDBJ-TV. "Your Honor, I am not the monster here."

The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2014. But in recent weeks, Flanagan laid careful plans for retribution. He contacted ABC News about what he claimed was a story tip and filled his Facebook page with photos and video montages seemingly designed to introduce himself to a larger audience.

On Wednesday, after killing Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, he went online to claim they had wronged him in the past.

He also texted a friend suggesting he had "done something stupid," investigators wrote in a search warrant. He turned the gun on himself when police caught up to him a few hours later. Inside his rental car, investigators found extra license plates, a wig, shawl, sunglasses and a hat as well as some stamped letters and a "to do" list.

On Thursday, the station's general manager, Jeffrey Marks, recalled a series of problems with Flanagan while he worked at WDBJ from March 2012 to February 2013. Flanagan accused a news photographer of trespassing on private property. He confronted an anchor over a story and attempted to reach the company's CEO to complain. He filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as the lawsuit.

Flanagan's joking and smiling one minute could turn to anger in the next, former colleague Justin McLeod said.

Once, for no apparent reason, Flanagan told a photographer he knew the man didn't like him because he was gay. The photographer told Flanagan he hadn't known about his sexual orientation, McLeod said.

Former co-workers, surprised that Flanagan had stayed in town after losing his job, passed him from time to time. They called them "Bryce sightings," referring to Flanagan's on-air name, Bryce Williams, McLeod said.

Others who crossed paths with Flanagan during that time, said he took offense easily.

Heather Fay, general manager of Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint in downtown Roanoke, said she threw out a lengthy letter Flanagan had sent, criticizing the staff for telling customers to "have a nice day" instead of "thank you."

"It was bizarre, for sure," she said.

Flanagan's interpersonal conflicts were at odds with the outgoing student some recalled in Oakland, California, where he was chosen junior prince at Skyline High School's homecoming. At San Francisco State University, Flanagan relished being in the spotlight during group presentations.

"He was such a nice guy, just a soft-spoken, well-dressed, good-looking guy. He never had any problems, no fights, nothing like that," said a high school classmate, Chris Dobbins, now an Oakland attorney.

___

Associated Press reporters Matthew Barakat, Jonathan Drew, Alan Suderman, John Raby and David Dishneau in Roanoke, Virginia; Larry O'Dell in Richmond, Virginia; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Mississippi; Terry Chea in Vallejo, California; Garance Burke in Oakland, California; Julie Watson in San Diego and researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this story.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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