Earlier today, there was a shooting of two youngish news reporters and photographers from a local station in Virginia. The victims' names were Alison Parker (24) and Adam Ward (27); two individuals whose lives were cut short without any concern for their futures.
The gunman was Vester Flanagan (41), better known by his reporter name Bryce Williams. Mr. Flanagan, a fellow news reporter, was dismissed from his position recently after complaints regarding his work ethic and unfounded allegations of racism and homophobia. You see, Mr. Flanagan was both an African-American and identified as a gay man. This was not the first time accusations were made by Mr. Flanagan regarding fellow employees. As a result of his dismissal, Mr. Flanagan this morning disturbed an interview Ms. Parker was doing and Mr. Ward was filming; by shooting Mr. Ward and then Ms. Parker and Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed live. Fortunately, Ms. Gardner is alive, though in intensive care. As for Mr. Flanagan, he live messaged and Tweeted his reasoning while being pursued by law enforcement. He then died from what amounted to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ABC News has obtained a copy of a 23 page statement from Mr. Flanagan which has not been fully released at this time.
I will have more to say on this shortly. None the less, along with the obvious need for the banning of guns and automatic weaponry; we are going to need to provide mandatory evaluations for people under some form of distress. Failure to do this could result in more of these tragic circumstances. This needs to stop!
As I mentioned before, I will have more on my opinions when possible. I just really detest saying the same reasonable idea yet getting a reply of "meh".
Talk to you pretty soon,
Robert
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