WDBJ 7 News Crew Shot Dead Live On Air in Moneta, Franklin County

Shooting leaves reporter and cameraman dead, interviewee injured

- Broadcast live on Virginia station WDBJ 7, footage depicted gunman

An American reporter and cameraman have been shot dead live on air during a report at a shopping centre in Virginia.

Reporter Alison Parker(24), and cameraman Adam Ward(27)were conducting an interview with a woman at the Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta when they were killed.
The shooting happened around 6:45 a.m. at Bridgewater Plaza in Franklin County, as Parker interviewed Gardner about the upcoming 50th anniversary festivities for Smith Mountain Lake, a local tourism destination.

The interviewee, Vicki Gardner, is being treated for injuries.Vicki Gardner, head of the SML Chamber of Commerce who was being interviewed, was shot in the back and is in surgery

The gunman has been named as Vester Lee Flanagan aka Bryce Williams.NBC 29 reports that the suspect in the shooting is being chased on the Interstate 64 motorway

The shopping mall where the incident happened is just off Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, about 25 miles southeast of Roanoke

The station's website says Ward was 27 and a graduate of Virginia Tech. Parker just turned 24 and attended James Madison University, where she was the editor of the school's newspaper, The Breeze. She also had been an intern at WDBJ-TV.
The station is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and serves the southwest and central part of the state

Jeffrey A. Marks, general manager of WDBJ-TV told that the incident was a "a terrible crime against two fine journalists."

Virgina Governor Terry McAliffe speaking said: "There are too many guns in the hands of people who should not have guns".

WDBJ's general manager, Jeff Marks, said Vester Lee Flanagan aka Bryce Williams(41) had to be escorted by police out of the station when he was fired, describing him as "an unhappy man."
"Eventually after many incidents of his anger... we dismissed him. He did not take that well," Marks explained.

Video posted hours after the shooting on Bryce Williams' Twitter account and Facebook page showed an outstretched arm holding the handgun and firing repeatedly at Parker as she tried to run away