Journalists shot dead live on TV over race grudge

27 August 2015 - 02:43 By ©The Daily Telegraph, AFP

Alison Parker surely saw her killer out of the corner of her eye as he walked up filming her on his mobile phone. It would not have been the first time a member of the public had stood staring while she was on live TV but, ever the professional, she simply ignored him and carried on with her interview.The slightest glance to her right would have shown her that the man towering over her cameraman Adam Ward had a pistol in his hand that he calmly raised, lowered and raised again, pointing at her heart as he whispered "bitch''.For more than 20 seconds Vester Flanagan, a former colleague with grudges against each of them, stood still almost within touching distance of Parker, filming her all the time. Then, after raising his gun for a final time, he opened fire, killing Parker and Ward live on television. He went on the run and later killed himself.In a fax sent to ABC News before he killed himsel, Flanagan, a serial litigant over racism claims, said he had carried out the murders as revenge for the killing of nine black churchgoers by a white supremacist in South Carolina in June. He said he had been a "human powder keg for a while ... just waiting to go BOOM!!!!''. He also complains of discrimination and bullying "for being a gay, black man."..

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