Two American journalists shot dead during live TV broadcast

This undated photograph made available by WDBJ-TV shows reporter Alison Parker, left, and cameraman Adam Ward. Parker and Ward were fatally shot during an on-air interview, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, in Moneta, Va. Authorities identified the suspect as fellow journalist Vester Lee Flanagan II, who appeared on WDBJ-TV as Bryce Williams. Flanagan was fired from the station in 2013. (Courtesy of WDBJ-TV via AP)

Two American TV journalists were shot dead during live reporting in rural Virginia on Wednesday.

24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward, employees of a local TV station WDBJ7, were holding a live broadcast around 6:45 am when an armed man opened fire at them.

The gunman, Bryce Williams reportedly tweeted that Parker had issued racist remarks. He also posted videos of him carrying out the attack on his social media accounts. His Twitter and Facebook accounts have since been suspended.

The gunman was taken into police custody with “life-threatening injuries” after apparently shooting himself, Virginia state police said. He later died.

“Troopers approached the vehicle and found the male driver suffering from a gunshot wound. He is being transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries,” police said in a statement. He later succumbed to the injuries as well.

During the live reporting, Parker was talking to the woman about tourism development for WDBJ’s early-morning newscast when the gunman seemingly closed in from behind. The woman was also reportedly wounded.

Several shots were heard, as well as screams, as Ward’s camera fell to the floor, capturing a fuzzy image of the gunman, dressed in dark clothing.

The station then cut away to a startled anchorwoman back in the studio.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said on Twitter that he was “heartbroken over (the) senseless murders.”

After he shot two journalists on live TV and before he shot himself, Bryce Williams sent a message to ABC News via fax: “I’ve been a human powder keg for a while….just waiting to go BOOM.”

This undated photo provided by WDBJ-TV, shows Vester Lee Flanagan II, who killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward in Moneta, Va., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Flanagan was a former employee at WDBJ who appeared on air as Bryce Williams. (WDBJ-TV via AP)

The document purportedly from the Virginia shooter came after he gunned down the two journalists, triggering a manhunt that ended when he fatally shot on himself as the police closed in.

WDBJ is located in the southern Virginia City of Roanoke. The shooter was a former reporter for the Roanoke station.

Investigation into Wednesday’s attack is far from over.

Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said authorities weren’t sure about the gunman’s motive, but are looking at his past employment at WDBJ as well other evidence, including the fax he allegedly sent to ABC News in New York.

“Many of you have gotten a lot of the correspondence, emails that had been sent out. It’s obvious that … this gentleman was disturbed in some way of the way things had transpired,” and that “at some point in his life, things spiraled out of control,” Overton said.

According to ABC, a 23-page fax to the network arrived almost two hours after the shooting. It came from someone who identified himself as Bryce Williams, the on-air name of gunman Vester L. Flanagan II used when he worked as a reporter.

In this framegrab from video posted on Bryce Williams’ Twitter account and Facebook page, Williams, whose real name is Vester Lee Flanagan II, aims a gun over the shoulder of WDBJ-TV cameraman Adam Ward at reporter Alison Parker as she conducts a live on-air interview. Moments later, Flanagan fatally shot Parker and Ward and injured Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed. The station said Flanagan was also an employee at WDBJ and appeared on air as Bryce Williams. (Vester Lee Flanagan II/Twitter via AP)

In the message, according to ABC, the gunman said the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting in June is what put him over the edge, but he wrote that his “anger has been building steadily” because of racial discrimination and sexual harassment he claims to have endured.

The writer expressed admiration for the shooters who massacred students at Columbine High School killers and Virginia Tech. And he said he put a deposit down for a gun two days after the Charleston shooting.