A man, apparently enraged over being fired from a Fox affiliate, shot and killed himself on Monday outside the Manhattan offices of the multinational media giant News Corporation.
A spokesperson for NYPD told TPM in an email that the man had died.
“An unidentified male sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest and was transported to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” the spokesperson said. Police said the man had shot himself in the chest outside of 1211 Avenue of the Americas shortly after 9 a.m.
The spokesperson, in an email to TPM, later identified the man as Phillip Perea, 41, of Irving, Texas.
In a memo to staff on Monday obtained by TPM, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy confirmed that the man was a former employee of Fox affiliate KTBC.
“This morning, a former employee at FOX 7-KTBC (Austin) committed suicide outside FOX Television Stations’ (FTS) headquarters in New York City,” the memo read. “He was employed at our Austin television station for ten months and has not been with the station or FTS since June 2014. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.”
Perea had been handing out fliers, which said News Corp. “ended my career,” moments before he killed himself, according to the Wall Street Journal. Perea also tweeted complaints about his employer an hour before the shooting, listing his grievances in a YouTube video, the paper reported.
Police reportedly found a suicide note and a gun at the scene.
News Corp and the Fox affiliate KTBC did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
The Austin Chronicle reported last year that Perea, then a promotion producer, was fired from KTBC and subsequently gave the newspaper recordings of conversations with his superiors.
A Twitter account that appeared to belong to Perea included messages criticizing Fox using the hashtag #theAmericanWorkplaceBully. The account sent tweets directly to several Fox anchors and contributors. One tweet posted on Thursday showed a photo of a wallet and said “this is all the money I have left to my name, $104”
The account also linked to a series Youtube videos, 35 in total, all titled “The American Workplace Bully: How FOX News Ended My Career.”
In the videos, a man identifying himself as Phillip Perea can be heard narrating several recordings that he said were made during meetings with superiors at KTBC.
In the first of many recordings, a man can be heard telling Perea he was suspending him with pay, telling him, “You make some people uncomfortable in this building. They’re afraid of you.”
“Your coworkers, and there’s several, they’re starting to fear you,” the man in the video could be heard saying. “They’re concerned about your behavior, your aggressiveness.”
The man was heard protesting Fox outside of the News Corp building on Monday, crying that it had ruined his life.
Crime scene tape at 21st Century Fox HQ: man shot, apparent suicide attempt. @nypost story: http://t.co/wD3Xrc5OGo pic.twitter.com/dDDs5RkDDX
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 26, 2015
This post has been updated.
