The big news today is the story of the reporter and cameraman killed while doing a live-shot TV report, while a third victim clings to life.
We’re not going to embed the video here, but if you want to see it, it can be found here. It’s unsettling as the reporter screams after she’s shot.
It’s a wake-up call to those who don’t think violence can happen to them or in their immediate area. The million dollar question is how many people will fail to answer that wake-up call, and instead remain in a slumber. Denial has no survival value.
Empower yourself. Become a gun owner. Get training. Carry your gun everywhere you are legally able.
I have no doubt that young reporter or her cameraman would have dreamed that by going to work today, they would be shot down by an angry former employee of their company. Ditto for the woman who they were interviewing.
Who among us works for a company who hasn’t seen a fellow employee angry at their termination? Translation, we are all at risk of lunatics, jihadists or garden variety violent criminal predators.
Thankfully, the killer in this case offed himself. Frankly, it was probably the most noble thing he’s done in his entire life. Sadly, he didn’t do it sooner. Much sooner.
From CNN:
• WDBJ General Manager Jeff Marks said of Vester Flanagan, “Two years ago, we had to separate him from the company. We did understand that he was still living in the area.” He added that WDBJ is cooperating with police and has handed over to police information on Flanagan’s history with the station and the video of the shooting.
• Though Marks has heard of Flanagan leveling accusations in the past, he said, “I don’t think (reporter) Alison (Parker) and that individual even overlapped here.” Marks added that he was not exaggerating when he says that Parker and photographer Adam Ward were “the kindest and nicest people who worked here. … I can’t figure out any connection.”
• The shooting made Marks want to step out of his role as a journalist and say of the shooter, “I don’t know whether I want him to live or die,” he told CNN.
• Law enforcement confronted Vester Flanagan on Interstate 66 and Flanagan shot himself, officials tell CNN. It is not clear whether he was killed or injured.
• ABC News reported that it has received a fax containing a 23-page manifesto from someone named Bryce Williams, the news outlet tweeted. The document has been handed over to investigators, ABC said.
• Virginia Tech, photographer Adam Ward’s alma mater, said in a statement, “It is shocking and deeply saddening for this community to be again struck by gun violence. We deplore this senseless violence, now seemingly commonplace in our society.”
• One of Ward’s professors, Robert Denton, added, “Adam was a delightful person. He worked hard — you could tell he loved what he was doing. He wasn’t afraid to pitch in and do whatever was necessary for the broadcast. He did whatever was needed with a smile and with grace. He was simply a very nice young man and very professional.”
Full story
Police are seeking a former WDBJ-TV reporter in connection with the shooting deaths of a reporter and photographer on live television Wednesday, a representative of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department said.
Flanagan worked at WDBJ as a reporter for about a year using the on-air name, Bryce Williams, according to a former WDBJ employee.
Flanagan was fired from the station, though the reason was not made public, the ex-employee said.
UPDATE:
We regret to say that reports of the killer’s demise were a little premature. He too is clinging to life.
Also, the left is quick to blame the NRA for this senseless act by a coward. (By the way, there is first-person video of this horrific attack. In it, you see the utter lack of situational awareness of all involved.)
And the media? NYPD is supposedly providing some security for media. Perhaps this wake-up call will not be lost upon the mainstream media reporters, many of whom have been so quick to dismiss something that prudent Americans recognize: the value of gun ownership for self-defense.
A comment at Legal Insurrection summed things up nicely:
DaveGinOly | August 26, 2015 at 1:36 pm
Leftists need only look at themselves as the cause of this tragedy. Liberal ideology promotes a culture that denies the importance of responsibility (“It’s Bush’s fault”), self-restraint, discipline, and delayed gratification. And it encourages this ideology particularly in the black community because it constantly excuses the actions of black Americans, accepting any behavior, including unlawful, violent behavior, as a justified reaction to perceived “racism.”
Also typical of the left’s reaction is its knee-jerk condemnation of the NRA and authentic American gun culture. With almost zero exceptions, criminals are not target shooters, hunters, competitive shooters, or NRA members, and they aren’t “good ol’ boys” or ranchers with shotguns and rifles in their pickup trucks. Progressives and the media fixate on authentic American gun culture in response to these events (and denigrates it with terms like “gun nuts,” as if merely smearing a group of people somehow validates the criticism), yet an attachment to authentic American gun culture is the very thing that is ABSENT from the connections linking most gun crimes. Calling people names will not alter this fact; it only makes those calling names look intellectually dishonest for attempting to manufacture a connection where one does not exist.
Before someone says that guns are the connection (I realize it’s unlikely any readers here will make such an inane statement) – do automobiles connect responsible drivers to drunk drivers, conflate their driving with DUI, or make the vast majority of drivers responsible for the careless and criminal acts of a relative few? Who would honestly make such a connection? What separates the two types of drivers, in spite of the fact that the groups both own and use automobiles, are the actions of the drivers, with one group acting responsibly and the other irresponsibly. No right-thinking person would ever accuse law-abiding drivers of being complicit in the drunken, irresponsible, and criminal behavior of those who drink and drive. These same differences separate members of American gun culture from the acts of criminals who use firearms in the commission of their crimes. Ownership and use of a particular manufactured object is insufficient to link two groups of people who differ in their attitudes, conscientiousness, their comportment with regard to the law, and their respect for the lives of their fellow citizens.
Update #2.
Update #3.
He wanted a race war.
Vester the molester was just a coward and a bully. He felt entitled to do whatever he wanted.
I just found this buried on yahoo:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2015/08/26/walmart-to-stop-selling-assault-rifles-other-firearms-used-in-mass-killings/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix
I think this should be front-headline news.
God Rest their souls.
Just another guy reinforcing negative stereotypes about angry black men with a sense of entitlement.
Add a couple more notches in the blacks killing whites column.
Did he really think starting a race war was going to make everything rosey for black people? If so, then he has been listening to far too many leftist agitators.
Dollars to donuts he sexually harassed that white girl after she turned him down for a date.
Obama on Dylan Roof shooting black people: “The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives. You know, that casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it. Racism we are not cured of, clearly.”
Obama on Vester Flanagan shooting white people: “What we know is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism,”
How’s that post-racialism working out for you, America?
How did electing the first multi-racial community organizer work out, America?
Have we had enough yet? Can we acknowledge the elephant in the room yet?
Look on the brightside: Obama has increased gun ownership and has ruined (permanently?) the Democrat brand.
I can only pray that you’re right, but the media is sure driving for Hitlary………hard.
I feel now the way I did after 9/11………….
There’s a SUNK (not sinking) feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I look at that picture above and just want to collapse. That’s the last moment of a beautiful, talented, loving and loved woman and, like ISIS, the murderous evil will now begin filming and publishing such murders.
I just want to throw up. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANY ONE OF US, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. Unless you’re like that security guard who was sitting at the entrance to the (was it a casino?) when those two robbers came in…….he was firing within 1.5 seconds or some ridiculous time. I mean, how prepared are you?
God save this nation. It’s almost over.
God rest these fine peoples’ souls. I am so sorry we’ve come to this.
the Dems are already calling for “assault weapon” bans, 10-round magazine limits, and universal background checks…
This guy used a handgun, only fired about 8 shots, and passed the background check when he bought the gun.
Scenarios:
Shooter Victim Democrat Reaction
White Black “Racist!”
Black White “Too Many Guns!”
Black Black (crickets chirping)