The disgruntled former WDBJ reporter who fatally shot two former co-workers on live television in Roanoke, Va. on Wednesday was reprimanded during the 2012 election for wearing an Obama sticker while waiting in line to vote in what station bosses said at the time was a clear violation of journalistic ethics.
That was just one of many complaints filed against Vester Lee Flanagan II during his TV news career. Numerous former colleagues and bosses have come forward to describe Flanagan as a poor performer with a chip on his shoulder who was often confrontational and aggressive.
The 41-year-old California native fatally shot WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward while they were filming a live segment Wednesday morning. A woman being interviewed was shot but is expected to survive. Flanagan shot himself and died, but not before posting gruesome video of the shooting on social media.
Flanagan, who went by the on-air name Bryce Williams, was fired from WDBJ in February 2013, less than a year after being hired. Prior to that, he had worked at news stations in Odessa, Tex., Savannah, Ga., and Tallahassee, Fla.
Following some of those gigs, Flanagan filed lawsuits against the news stations for racial discrimination. In a 23-page manifesto he faxed to ABC News on Tuesday, Flanagan claimed that was angry over discrimination he claimed he’d faced because he was black and gay. He added that the Charleston, S.C. shooting that left nine black churchgoers dead was the final spark for Wednesday’s attack.
Last year, Flanagan filed a discrimination lawsuit against WDBJ alleging that was fired because of his race.
But court papers obtained by The Daily Mail and other outlets paint a different picture. They indicate that Flanagan was fired because he was an abrasive and hostile co-worker who was also a poor performer.
He also violated journalistic ethics and company policy by openly advocating for President Barack Obama during the 2012 election.
“It’s come to our attention that while standing in line on Tuesday, preparing to vote, you were wearing a President Obama sticker on your clothing,” reads a Nov. 9, 2012 memo WDBJ station manager Dan Dennison sent to Flanagan.
“Bryce, this is a clear violation, not only of Schurz Co. policy but of standard journalistic ethics. Journalists and particularly reporters who appear on television must abide by a different standard,” he continued, adding that “this demonstrated a basic lack of understanding of your role as an on-air journalist at the television station and poor judgment.”
“While this is the first incident of this nature, and we trust the last, you need to quickly and diligently move from the category of an employee who commits misstep after misstep to the kind of problem-free employee that we hope you can become.”
Dennison also told Flanagan in a December 2012 email that his on-air performance “continues to be stiff and nervous.”
“You hold onto scripts with both hands; even when you have a teleprompter in the studio and never refer to them.”
Flanagan was also dubbed a “human tape recorder” because of his tendency to merely repeat what sources and documents stated rather than doing his own additional reporting.
“Your job as a news reporter is to dig for the truth and the facts,” Dennison wrote. “You have a tendency to repeat instead of report on many stories which leads to thinly sourced material and a lack of substance.”
Flanagan’s stiff style can be gleaned from a highlight reel that the killer posted to YouTube two years ago.
When Flanagan was finally fired in February 2013, he left the station under police escort. “Call the police. I’m not leaving. I’m going to make a stink and it’s going to be in the headlines,” Flanagan reportedly said at the time.
Flanagan’s job with Tallahassee’s WTWC came to a similar end in 2000.
“He was becoming really paranoid and becoming really difficult to work with,” Don Shafer, the station manager at WTWC at the time, said Wednesday. “And wanting to argue with everyone and fight with everyone, and it became physical after a while to the point where I had to escort him out of the building.” (RELATED: Former News Director: Roanoke Killer Would Get Into Physical Conflicts With Staff)