Even after gunning down a TV news reporter and cameraman during a live interview, Vester Lee Flanagan II continued to rage. But after a volatile career that had seen him fired at least twice for clashing with co-workers who recall him as an off-kilter loner, this would be the former broadcaster’s last, brutal sign-off.
“I’ve been a human powder keg for a while...just waiting to go BOOM!!!” Flanagan wrote in a rambling 23-page note faxed to ABC News soon after the shooting.
Hours after he shot his former co-workers and then posted video of the attack to his Facebook page, Flanagan crashed a vehicle and shot himself. He died at a hospital later Wednesday, authorities said.
In the note, Flanagan — who had appeared on air using the name Bryce Williams — said he'd been discriminated against both for being black and gay. He listed grievances dating to the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech and the more recent massacre of worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
