XPost: alabama.general, alt.activism, alt.activism.death-penalty   
   XPost: alt.alcohol   
   From: lying-pricks@msnbc.com   
      
   The cold-blooded Roanoke killer kept getting fired, kept   
   threatening co-workers, and kept claiming he was the real victim.   
   Vester Lee Flanagan claimed in a suicide note Wednesday that   
   June’s massacre of black parishioners at a South Carolina church   
   was “the tipping point” that sent him on the path to murdering   
   two journalists on live television Wednesday.   
      
   But in court papers and interviews with The Daily Beast, former   
   colleagues describe Flanagan as a problematic employee, who was   
   repeatedly reprimanded for his harsh treatment of coworkers, and   
   complained that racism was behind harsh evaluations of his work.   
      
   “He just had a history of playing the race card,” former WTWC   
   anchor Dave Leval told The Daily Beast. “I know he did that in   
   Tallahassee a couple of times…”   
      
   The day Flanagan was fired from a Virginia TV station in 2013,   
   his bosses called 911 because of his volatile behavior—an   
   incident captured on camera by Adam Ward, a man who would later   
   become one of his victims.   
      
   At a February 2013 meeting, managers at WDBJ7 in Roanoke told   
   Flanagan he wasn’t a good fit and would be terminated. Flanagan   
   became “agitated” before issuing a threat, one boss recalled in   
   court papers.   
      
   “I’m not leaving,” fumed Flanagan, who went by “Bryce Williams”   
   on air. “You’re going to have to call the fucking police. Call   
   the police, I’m not leaving. I’m going to make a stink and it’s   
   going to be in the headlines.”   
      
   One former manager, Dan Dennison, said Flanagan terrified   
   employees so much they took shelter in a locked office.   
      
   “He repeated… his feeling that firing him would lead to negative   
   consequences for me personally and for the station,” Dennison   
   said, according to a statement in a racial discrimination   
   lawsuit Flanagan filed in 2014, which was dismissed.   
      
   The disgruntled newsman handed Dennison a small wooden cross and   
   warned him, “You’ll need this.”   
      
   But no one could guess that two years after he was fired,   
   Flanagan would shoot two other journalists at his former TV   
   station.   
      
   Shortly after 7 a.m., Flanagan approached Ward and reporter   
   Alison Parker from behind at a local park while they were   
   interviewing Vicki Gardner of the local chamber of commerce.   
   Dressed in black, Flanagan drew a camera phone and a gun, and   
   started shooting.   
      
   Ward was hit first, but managed to raise his camera for a final   
   look at Flanagan before dying. Parker tried to run but was shot   
   dead. Gardner was shot but survived and is now in stable   
   condition.   
      
   Flanagan fled in a rental car and sparked an hours-long manhunt,   
   during which he tweeted perceived slights from the victims.   
      
   Then Flanagan made the final, and surely most-watched broadcast   
   of his career, sending out snuff films online.   
      
   Minutes later, authorities caught up with him. Flanagan   
   apparently shot himself and crashed his car. He was transported   
   to a hospital, where he later died.   
      
   WDBJ’s station manager Jeff Marks painted a picture of   
   Flanagan’s erratic behavior at a news conference Wednesday.   
      
      
   “Vester was an unhappy man,” Marks said, adding, “when he was   
   hired here, he quickly gathered a reputation as someone who was   
   difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out for people to   
   say things that he could take offense to.”   
      
   Flanagan also filed an employment discrimination suit against a   
   Tallahassee, Florida, station where he worked from 1999 to 2000.   
   (That case was settled out of court.)   
      
   According to one news report, Flanagan said he and another black   
   employee were called “monkeys” and claimed a supervisor once   
   said, “Blacks are lazy and do not take advantage of free money”   
   for scholarships and other opportunities.   
      
   Don Shafer, Flanagan’s former boss at WTWC in Tallahassee,   
   called Flanagan a “pretty good reporter” but said “things   
   started getting a little strange with him.”   
      
   “We ended up having to terminate his contract and let him go for   
   bizarre behavior and fighting with other employees,” Shafer said   
   on San Diego 6, where he now serves as news director.   
      
   “He threatened to punch people out, and he was kind of running   
   fairly roughshod over other people in the newsroom,” Shafer   
   added.   
      
   Former colleagues told The Daily Beast that Flanagan blew up at   
   two female coworkers in Florida—and that one woman’s husband   
   considered coming to work to defend her.   
      
   “In one case, the husband of one of the women came this close to   
   coming into the station and pounding the hell out of him,” Leval   
   said.   
      
   “When he left WTWC in Tallahassee, I don’t think anybody shed a   
   tear,” Leval added.   
      
   Leval said photographers repeatedly tried to get out of   
   assignments with Flanagan, who was difficult and acted like a   
   “diva.”   
      
   Former news producer Greg Sextro said Flanagan was “the biggest   
   dork I’d ever met in my entire life, but he was a really nice   
   guy. A horrible reporter, but really nice.”   
      
   Sextro, who was called to a deposition in the Florida   
   discrimination suit, said the budding journalist was treated   
   well at the station and that colleagues tried to help him with   
   his writing.   
      
   “The fact that he kept his job was because he was an African-   
   American gay man. That’s pretty hard to say no to,” Sextro told   
   The Daily Beast.   
      
   “He was just a goofy guy,” Sexro added. “I cannot see him doing   
   this ever. He had to have been pushed to the limit to do   
   something like that.”   
      
   Meanwhile ABC News reported Wednesday it received a suicide note   
   via fax from “Bryce Williams” about two hours after the   
   shooting. Flanagan claimed he purchased his gun two days after   
   nine black parishioners were killed in Charleston in June—and   
   that he was fighting back in the race war Dylann Roof supposedly   
   wanted to start.   
      
   “The church shooting was the tipping point… but my anger has   
   been building steadily,” Flanagan wrote. “I’ve been a human   
   powder keg for a while… just waiting to go BOOM!!!!”   
      
   Flanagan also claimed he was attacked for being a gay black man,   
   and that he suffered bullying, sexual harassment, and racial   
   discrimination at work, ABC News reported.   
      
   Court papers in Flanagan’s 2013 discrimination case also reveal   
   an apparent preoccupation with perceived racism against him.   
      
   “I am hereby requesting a trial which will be heard by a jury of   
   my peers,” he wrote in a letter to the judge. “I would like my   
   jury to be comprised of African-American women.”   
      
   Flanagan also mentioned a frequently appearing watermelon as   
   evidence of racial harassment at the Roanoke TV station and   
   claimed he had photos of it.   
      
   “This was not an innocent incident,” Flanagan claimed. “It   
   appeared after a meeting during which ‘watermelon’ comments were   
   discussed.”   
      
   He also claimed head photographer Lynn Eller was the mastermind   
   of a “carefully orchestrated effort by the photography staff to   
   oust me,” court documents show.   
      
   “Why did one of the photographers go to HR on me after working   
   with me ONLY ONCE,” Flanagan wrote, in an apparent reference to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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