The ex-reporter who killed two of his former colleagues during a live television newscast Wednesday had vowed when he was fired in 2013 to “make a stink and it was going to be in headlines,” his former employer said on Thursday.
A statement released by Roanoke, Va. TV station WDBJ, where suspect Vester Flanagan worked alongside the two people he gunned down, detailed his bizarre behavior and his termination.
According to the unsigned statement, Flanagan handed the station’s news director a wooden cross on his way out the door, and said “You’ll need this.”
He also made a “derogatory comment” to Adam Ward, the WDBJ photographer who was killed Wednesday during the live newscast along with reporter Alison Parker.
Flanagan, according to the statement, said the police would need to remove him, and that he was going to “make a stink and it was going to be in headlines,” prompting a staffer to call 911.
The station conducted a routine background check when Flanagan — using the TV name Bryce Williams — applied for a job with the station. He was employed as a multimedia journalist there from March 2012 to February 2013.
Based on the quality of Flanagan’s work and his numerous run-ins with other WDBJ staffers, managers put him on multiple “performance improvement plans,” the statement said, noting that Flanagan’s improvement each time was nominal.
The station said it also sent Flanagan a “mandatory referral” for medical services in July 2012, and said he would lose his job is he did not follow up.
Among the incidents cited in the statement was a January 2013 run-in with an unnamed photographer, who questioned Flanagan’s decision to trespass on private property for a story.
The statement also noted Flanagan’s concerns “of perceived unfairness” were investigated but not substantiated. After his termination, Flanagan filed a complaint of harassment and discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was ultimately denied. He later filed a civil suit against WDBJ in Roanoke court, which was also dismissed, according to the statement.