WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities said Wednesday afternoon thesuspect in killings of two Virginia journalists during a live TV interview earlier in the daydied of gunshot wounds.
The suspected shooter, identified as Vester Flanigan, a former employee of Virginia-basedWDBJ-TV, shot and wounded himself after police pursuit led to a car crash on a Virginiahighway. He died later Wednesday afternoon in hospital, said the police.
Authorities said Flanigan's motive in the fatal on-air shooting of two TV journalistsremained elusive. They said they did not know whether the shooting was raciallymotivated.
Meanwhile, Flanigan's claims of racial discrimination against two U.S. TV stations, includingWDBJ-TV, surfaced Wednesday.
According to legal documents, Flanigan claimed in a federal lawsuit against Florida-basedWTWC-TV in 2000 that he was called a"monkey" by a producer in 1999. He also claimedthat an unnamed white supervisor at the station called black people "lazy."
Flanagan later worked for WDBJ7 in Virginia for a while under the name Bryce Williams,according to Jeffrey Marks, general manager of the TV station.
Speaking in an interview with CNN, Marks said that Flanagan once alleged that otheremployees made racially-tinged comments to him and filed a complaint with the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission. The claim was found groundless and dismissedlater.
Describing Flanagan as "an unhappy man" who was difficult to work with, Marks said hisTV station dismissed him about two years ago, adding that at that time police had to escortFlanagan from the building.
According to WDBJ7, the shooting happened during a live broadcast around 6:45 a.m. localtime (1045 GMT) at a shopping mall in Moneta, Virginia, when its two journalists werecovering a story at a recreation site called Bridgewater Plaza.
WDBJ7 identified the two slain journalists as 27-year-old photographer Adam Ward and24-year-old TV reporter Alison Parker.
In the early part of the live broadcast, Parker was seen interviewing an woman whoseidentity was later confirmed to be Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith MountainLake Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Then shots were heard and both Parker and Gardner were recorded as screaming andducking for cover. Gardner was injured but survived the incident.
Hours after the on-air shooting, one video clip of the incident was posted on a Twitteraccount and a Facebook page of someone under the name of Bryce Williams. The videoappeared to be shot from the shooter's vantage point, showing an outstretched arm holdingthe handgun and firing repeatedly at Parker as she tried to run away.
