Assassination of Alison Parker and Adam Ward

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Crime Scene (Virginia)
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The murder scene in Bedford County , Virginia

Coordinates: 37 ° 8 ′ 36.2 ″  N , 79 ° 40 ′ 11.9 ″  W The murder of Alison Parker and Adam Ward , also known as the "Moneta Shooting" on August 26, 2015 , was a crime that took place on August 26, 2015 . Aug 2015. Moneta , Virginia , United States , the journalist Alison were Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward of a former colleague shot on camera. They were employees of CBS - Affiliates WDBJ and interviewed live on WDBJ 7 from the Bridgewater Plaza Mall on Smith Mountain Lake .

Course of events

The news team was interviewing local Chamber of Commerce chair Vicki Gardner at 6:45 am local time when the gunfire rang out. Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, died on the scene, Gardner survived seriously injured and was discharged from hospital on September 8th. Parker and Ward were the seventh and eighth journalists at the time of the crime to have been murdered while working in the United States since 1992.

The attacker was later identified as the 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan II, who was known by the professional pseudonym "Bryce Williams" and previously also worked as a reporter for WDBJ. After hours of car chase , he was caught on Interstate 66 in Fauquier County , but managed to escape. Shortly thereafter, Flanagan turned the gun on himself. He later died in hospital. Flanagan was fired in 2013 for disruptive behavior by WDBJ and had complained about racial discrimination, which later became a motive.

Two hours after the fact, ABC News received a 23-page fax apparently from Flanagan. In the fax, entitled "Suicide Note for Friends and Family," he expressed his bitterness over racial and homophobic discrimination based on skin color and homosexuality . Flanagan also wrote that he was provoked by the attack in Charleston and wrote threatening comments against Dylann Roof , the sole suspect in the act.

Consequences and reactions

Because of the rapid spread of the incident, including via Facebook and Twitter, and the fact that the perpetrator published a video of the crime on the Internet to draw attention to his motive, the crime became the “first social media murder” and a turning point referred to in the Internet age. Since the killer had expected the response to his act, he had previously prepared his Facebook and Twitter accounts for a journalistic evaluation and tweeted after the fact that "Alison had made racist comments". He had also filmed his act in a 56-second video and published it on the Internet. His user profiles were then deleted by the site operators.

In response to the crime, US President Barack Obama said: "It breaks my heart". The Governor of Virginia , Terry McAuliffe , renewed in a response to the fact its call for a tightening of gun laws .

The commentator for the Basler Zeitung attached historical importance to the double murder. In fact, a “new escalation level” had been reached, as Flanagan had used it to stage a targeted social media campaign. In the Berliner Tagesspiegel the event was described as a “turning point in the digital media public”, since in this case “directing and distribution” had passed into the hands of the perpetrator.

At James Madison University , the alma mater of the murdered journalist, an Alison B. Parker Memorial Fund named after her was set up to finance scholarships. Alison Parker's partner Chris Hurst was elected to the Virginia House of Representatives in November 2017 and dedicated his inaugural address to his late partner, Alison Parker. The mother of the murdered reporter and her husband have been committed to stricter gun control laws since the death of their daughter. In March 2018, she and her husband took part in the March for Our Lives protest march in Washington DC for stricter gun laws, on which they carried a photo of their shot daughter. In August 2018, the media remembered this event.

Victim

  • Alison Parker (August 19, 1991 - August 26, 2015) grew up in Martinsville , Virginia and studied at Patrick Henry Community College and James Madison University . In 2012 she worked as an intern at WDBJ, then as a news journalist for the ABC affiliate WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina and since 2014 at WDBJ as a correspondent for the program "Mornin '". She lived with her significant other, Chris Hurst, who works for the same broadcaster.
  • Adam Ward (May 10, 1988 - August 26, 2015) grew up in Salem , Virginia and graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2011 . Since July of the same year he worked for the station. His fiancée Melissa Ott also works in television.
  • Vicki Gardner , the interviewee, survived being shot in the back . Originally from Union Springs, New York, she has been the director of the local Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce since 2002. After the operation, her condition was said to be stable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US journalists shot dead - Virginia shooter with gunshot wound in hospital , August 26, 2015
  2. ↑ a b Richard Wheatstone: Virginia shooter films himself gunning down TV reporter - then posts horrific footage on Facebook , Daily Mirror from August 26, 2015
  3. ↑ Web Staff: Two WDBJ7 employees killed in attack at Bridgewater Plaza . August 26, 2015. Archived from the original on August 26, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 26, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wdbj7.com
  4. ↑ a b Christine Hauser: Woman Injured in Virginia TV Shooting Is Out of the Hospital , New York Times, September 8, 2015
  5. ↑ Suspect in the life murder of journalists kills himself , USA-today, August 26, 2015; accessed on August 26, 2015
  6. ^ Meghan Keneally via Good Morning America : Suspect in On-Air Virginia Shooting Identified , The Walt Disney Company. August 26, 2015. 
  7. ↑ Doug Stanglin: Disturbed 'Va. Gunman angered by Charleston shootings . In: USA Today , Gannett Company, August 26, 2015. 
  8. ↑ Pierre Thomas: After Shooting, Alleged Gunman Details Grievances in 'Suicide Notes' . The Walt Disney Company. August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  9. ^ Gary Robertson: Virginia TV journalists killed by suspect with 'powder keg' of anger . August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Jason Silverstein: TV news reporter, cameraman are fatally shot during live broadcast in Virginia; suspected shooter posts video of attack, then kills himself (SHOCKING VIDEO) . August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  11. ^ Meagan Fitzpatrick: Why the Virginia shooting is being called the 1st 'social media murder' . In: CBC News , August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2015. 
  12. ↑ Autoportrait prémédité d'un tueur , Tristan Berteloot, Frantz Durupt, Gurvan Kristanadjaja, Laure Andrillon, Liberation, August 27, 2015
  13. ^ Huffington Post, August 26, 2015 , accessed August 26, 2015
  14. ^ Dana Hedgpeth: Suspect in slaying of two TV station employees in SW Virginia shoots himself and dies . In: The Washington Post , Nash Holdings LLC, Aug. 26, 2015. 
  15. ^ The shared scandal , Linus Schöpfer, Basler Zeitung , August 28, 2015
  16. ↑ Out of control? , Margreth Lünenborg, Der Tagesspiegel , August 30, 2015
  17. ^ Alison Parker's Memory Celebrated Through Memorial Fund , WSET-TV, Sept. 1, 2015
  18. ↑ Chris Hurst, whose girlfriend died in live TV shooting, beats NRA candidate in Virginia
  19. ↑ Meet the Mother of the Reporter Tragically Gunned Down on Live TV , Rolling Stone , May 6, 2016
  20. ↑ Father of Slain TV reporter Alison Parker continues to speak out against gun violence , Fox 5 (WTTG), February 19, 2018
  21. ↑ "Andy and Barbara Parker carried a portrait of their daughter, Alison, who was killed on live TV." Parents of slain Virginia reporters attend Washington, DC , Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2018 (not in Germany because of EU laws reachable)
  22. ^ "March for our lives" in Washington: March against gun violence and for tougher laws , Deutschlandfunk , March 26, 2018
  23. ^ Recalling the 2015 fatal shooting of two Virginia journalists , Washington Post , August 23, 2018
  24. ↑ Radio, TV station journalists attacked in Detroit while on assignment , USA Today , August 3, 2018
  25. ↑ Jaime McCutcheon: Former WCTI reporter killed during TV live shot . Bonten Media Group . August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  26. ^ Eliott C. McLaughlin: Police: Bryce Williams fatally shoots self after killing journalists on air . In: CNN , August 27, 2015. 
  27. ^ Joe Dashiell, A look at the lives of WDBJ7's Alison Parker and Adam Ward . Schurz Communications. August 26, 2015. Archived from the original on August 28, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 26, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wdbj7.com
  28. ↑ a b Va. Reporter, cameraman shot, killed during live interview , Hubbard Broadcasting . August 26, 2015. Archived from the original on August 26, 2015 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / liveblogwp.wtop.com 
  29. ↑ Christine Rushton: Virginia TV journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward shot dead: Here's what we know . In: USA Today , Gannett Company, August 26, 2015. 
  30. ↑ WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, photographer Adam Ward hailed by colleagues, friends . Tribune Broadcasting . August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  31. ↑ Alexa Ashwell, Blake Hanson and Tina Terry: Fired reporter kills 2 former co-workers on live TV , Cox Media Group . August 27, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015. 
  32. ^ A b Antonio Olivo: Shooting victim Vicki Gardner is head of the local chamber of commerce . Graham Media Group. August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  33. ↑ Tom Cleary: Vester Lee Flanagan: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know . In: Heavy . August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  34. ^ State police: Shooting suspect in 'very critical condition' after shooting himself . In: The Roanoke Times , BH Media , Aug 26, 2015.