Guardian: TV Gunman Was Ordered To Get Medical Help Or Lose Job After Complaints

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WDBJ station management reportedly ordered Virginia gunman Vester Flanagan get medical help after repeated complaints that he made co-workers feel “threatened or uncomfortable,” the Guardian US reported Wednesday.

In a station memo addressed to Bryce Williams – Flanagan’s on-air name – then-WDBJ news director Dan Dennison reprimanded Flanagan for using “harsh language” and “aggressive body language.” He also ordered Flanagan to follow through with the “mandatory referral” or lose his job.

“On three separate occasions in the past month and a half you have behaved in a manner that has resulted in one or more of your co-workers feeling threatened or uncomfortable,” Dennison wrote in the memo obtained by the Guardian.

Dennison cited a July 21, 2012 incident when Flanagan had a “conflict” with another WDBJ staff member about finishing the editing on a 6 p.m. news package.

“It seems that you are taking the actions of many of the photographers quite personally and misinterpreting their actions or words,” Dennison wrote in the July 30, 2012 memo. “Clearly much damage has been done already in your working relationships with several members of the photography staff.”

Flanagan died of self-inflicted gunshot wound Wednesday after he gunned down two journalists during a live TV broadcast and posted graphic footage of the killings on social media.

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  1. Avatar for marby marby says:

    Not a surprise that he needed medical/mental help. We should be doing a much better job at providing such services to those who need them. However, it is the access to a gun which turned his issues into this kind of tragedy. When will we learn?

  2. With our country’s gun lobby and laws, you get one free crack at committing mayhem with firearms.
    This kind of thing should happen once in a century. In the US, it’s a daily occurrence.

  3. Narcissism and anger issues. Basically a personality disorder as opposed to some serious mental illness.

  4. It was still a missed opportunity to avert this tragedy. Any contact I had with the mental health industry has been a poor experience. Maybe I’ve been unlucky, but it seems you have to have money in this country to get a shrink worth a dam.

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