commerce when there was the sudden sound of gunfire and screams. The camera tumbled to the ground, and producers at the local WDBJ7 news station cut off the broadcast, switching to a shocked-looking anchor in the studio.

It later emerged that both Parker and Ward died at the scene. The gunman also shot their interviewee, Vicki Gardner, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake regional chamber of commerce. Gardner survived and is in stable condition after surgery.

The suspect, Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, was a former TV reporter at WDBJ7, who broadcast under the on-air name Bryce Williams. He died several hours after shooting himself.

Virginia TV shooter Vester Lee Flanagan was a 'disturbed' and 'unhappy man' Read more

By then Flanagan had posted on the internet his own videoCounty. After a brief pursuit, Flanagan shot himself. He died in hospital two hours later.

Flanagan had driven some 200 miles from the lakeside resort where he is suspected of killing his former colleagues, around four hours earlier live on TV. He apparently posted messages and video on Twitter and Facebook either immediately before or during his journey north.

Location of Moneta, Virginia Location of Moneta, Virginia

“Vester was an unhappy man,” WDBJ7’s station manager, Jeff Marks, told viewers live on air a few hours later. “We employed him as a reporter, and he had some talent in that respect and some experience, although he’d been out of the business for a while.

“He quickly gathered a reputation as someone who was difficult to work with,” he added, saying that Flanagan would