TV Shooter Sued Previous Station Alleging He’d Been Called A ‘Monkey’

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The man suspected of gunning down two Virginia journalists during a live newscast Wednesday morning previously sued a Florida broadcaster that employed him for racial discrimination.

Vester Lee Flanagan, who is black and who also went by the name Bryce Williams, filed a lawsuit in March 2000 in federal court alleging that Tallahassee, Florida’s WTWC terminated him after he complained about ongoing racism on the job. The suit sought damages in excess of $15,000.

The suit stated that Flanagan was hired by WTWC as a newscaster in March 1999. It detailed purported instances of racism that included a supervising producer allegedly calling Flanagan a “monkey” and another station official allegedly telling a black tape operator to “stop talking ebonics.”

“Shortly after [Flanagan] made managerial level employees of Defendant aware of ongoing racial practices within Defendant, he was notified that his contract was not to be renewed,” the suit stated, alleging retaliation.

WTWC denied that it discriminated against Flanagan on the basis of his race in a response to the civil lawsuit. The TV station asserted that Flanagan’s termination was a response to a combination of his poor performance and misbehavior with regard to coworkers and the station’s budgetary concerns.

WTWC further denied that the supervising producer called Flanagan a “monkey.” Regarding comments a station official allegedly made to a black tape operator, however, the TV station admitted that similar comments may have been made to one of its employees.

The two parties ultimately settled the case for an undisclosed amount, according to court documents.

Read Flanagan’s complaint and WTWC’s response below:

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  1. Why glamorize this killler’s whines? TPM, I thought you were better than this.

    He’s dead now, and should be dead to TPM as well. Time for TPM to do some actual investigative journalism and help us learn about those two innocent victims’ lives and loved ones.

    We don’t actually care that this criminal’s mind was warped and incidentally played the race card.

  2. This is the Teatrolls’ Exhibit 1 in their case alleging that this is a “hate crime.”

    I dunno if it’s doublethink or triplethink at this point.

  3. Ratings. They did it for Dylan Roof, we saw all kinds of his idiocy posted for a couple of weeks. Now we will see this guys idiocy. It generates clicks and revenue. There will be a little less for this guy since Roof’s shooting killed far more. But you will still see a lot of it.

  4. They are idiots. You go by the primary motive, and that is workplace. He did not pick them out because they were white, it’s because they were fellow ex workers. So it’s workplace violence, not hate crime, even though he hated whites.

    Like that jerk who shot people over parking spots a few months back. Yes, they were Muslim and he hated all religious people. But that was not his primary motive. It was the parking thing he was psycho about, so not a hate crime.

    On the other hand Dylan Roof’s primary motive was race. Hate Crime.

  5. Only “good” thing one can say about this killer: he gave himself the death penalty on the same day, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

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