August 26, 2015

Two Journalists Shot During Live Television Broadcast

Update, August 26, 2015, 2:25 p.m. EST: The suspected gunman, Vester Flanagan, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Sheriff Bill Overton announced in a press conference.

Update, August 26, 2015, 1:00 p.m. EST: Following a police chase, authorities found Flanagan suffering from a gunshot wound. It appears to have been self-inflicted.

Two members of a Virginia news crew were shot and killed during a live news segment on Wednesday morning. Authorities have identified the suspected gunman as Vester Lee Flanagan, according to multiple sources. He reportedly went by the name Bryce Williams professionally. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told a local radio station that the suspect was believed to be a “disgruntled employee” of the news station, WDBJ.


The shooting occurred at Bridgewater Plaza, a shopping center in Moneta, Virginia, where reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were both killed. WDBJ confirmed their deaths. The head of the local Chamber of Commerce, Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed by Parker at the time, was also injured in the attack. She is out of emergency surgery and in stable condition.

The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office couldn’t immediately be reached for confirmation of the suspect’s identity.

Part of the shooting was recorded on video and posted to social media accounts. It was later taken down. 

Below is a live newscast of the outlet’s coverage of the shooting:

This is a breaking news post. We will update as more information becomes available.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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