Authorities said they identified Flanagan as the gunman based on information from the television station. He had fled by the time law enforcement officers arrived, triggering an intense search. The women wailed.įlanagan fired more shots - 15 in total - and the victims' voices fell silent. He fired again - and again and again.Īs the TV station cut its feed and Flanagan's video went black, he kept shooting. She screamed and turned, looking at him with her mouth agape and eyes terrified. "įlanagan fired the first shot, striking Parker in the stomach. "We want the people who come here to say that was. Suddenly, though, he lowered the gun and, for 17 seconds, it remained hidden from his video camera's view.Īt that moment, Gardner was gushing about her small town's progress, saying she wanted it to come together, to grow, to provide visitors a better experience. None of them noticed Flanagan - standing just feet away - as he raised his pistol and muttered the slur. Nearby, Ward panned his camera lens over the sleepy town below. On Wednesday, he approached his three victims at Bridgewater Plaza - a shopping and entertainment center in Franklin County - as Parker and Gardner discussed the 50th anniversary of the Smith Mountain Lake community. He said the church massacre had, after years of discrimination, sent him "over the top." "Not hearing her voice again crushes my soul."įlanagan, who is black, faxed a 22-page letter to ABC News two hours after the killings. "Alison was our bright, shining light and it was cruelly extinguished by yet another crazy person with a gun," her father, Andy Parker, said in a statement. A determined reporter, she was a star at the station and seemed destined for an anchor role. Parker had just moved in with her boyfriend, who tweeted that the couple intended to marry. She witnessed the shooting as it unfolded live on air and was later transported to the hospital. He had job interviews scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and the day of his death was meant to be his fiancee's last working at the station. Ward and his fiancee, who got engaged last year, were on the verge of moving to Charlotte, N.C. The story exploded on social media and dominated cable news broadcasts throughout the day, fueled both by the gruesome video and by the stories of the two young journalists whose lives were ended. Flanagan's scheme began with the legal purchase of his gun two days after the church massacre included an escape plan that involved ditching one car and fleeing in a rental and ended when he fatally shot himself during a police chase 200 miles from the site of Wednesday's shootings.
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