Updated | Reporter, cameraman shot dead during live broadcast

Suspect in murder of journalists shoots himself, media report

Last updated on 26 August 2015, 6:24pm

1 min read

Adam Ward, 27, and Alison Parker, 24, fatally shot in on-air attack

A gunman killed a reporter and videographer for a CBS affiliate in Virginia in a shooting that was broadcast live Wednesday morning.

According to the media, the suspect has shot himself and is critcally injured. Initial reports said that he was dead.

Vester Flanagan, known as Bryce Williams, posted a film on Facebook of him killing Alison Parker and Adam Ward live on air in Moneta, Virginia before shooting himself. Williams was reportedly fired from another network for erratic behaviour prior to working at WDBJ7.

Virginia TV reporter @AParkerWDBJ7 and cameraman Adam Ward shot dead during live report https://t.co/wH4gf3dJWu pic.twitter.com/dMPwttSiBD
— FB Newswire (@fbnewswire) August 26, 2015

Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, a reporter and cameraman respectively for WDBJ-TV, died in the shooting, the station's general manager, Jeff Marks, said during a broadcast later in the morning.

Marks said that Parker and Ward died shortly after 6:45 a.m., when the shots rang out.

"We heard screaming and then we heard nothing," Marks said.

Marks said the police do not know the motive of the shooting or the gunman's identity.

The shooting happened at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, Virginia.

Schools in Bedford County, where Moneta is located, and neighboring Franklin County were placed on lockdown following the shooting, according to messages posted to the school districts' Facebook pages.