The ex-boss of the man alleged to have killed two former colleagues during a live newscast on Wednesday in Virginia said he remembered the suspect as “an unhappy man” and said police had to escort him from the building when the station fired him.
Television station general manager Jeff Marks described former WDBJ employee Vester Flanagan – who police say opened fire on a live newscast early Wednesday morning, killing two journalists – on Wednesday as “an unhappy man,” and said police had to escort him from the building when the station fired him.
Flanagan, who went by the name Bryce Williams on the air, was reportedly employed at television station WDBJ from 2012 to 2013 as a multimedia journalist.
Television station general manager Jeff Marks told CNN on Wednesday afternoon that Flanagan had a reputation for angry outbursts and being difficult to work with.
“Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience,” Marks said. “He quickly gathered a reputation of someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out to people to say things he could take offense to. Eventually, after many incidents of his anger, we dismissed him. He did not take that well. We had to call police to escort him from the building.”
Marks also said he believed Flanagan had fabricated incidents of racial discrimination during his time at the station.
Marks also told CNN he did not believe Flanagan had showed up at the station after his dismissal, and did not think there were any active threats.
Shortly after the shooting, social media accounts registered to the name Bryce Williams posted graphic first-person video of WDBJ journalists Adam Ward and Alison Parker being gunned down. On that Twitter account, the user posted tweets that seemed to reference earlier events at the station:
