The live coverage of a reporter and a cameraman being killed on air by the TV station's former employee shocked the world last week.
Public fury escalated further when the gunman posted a first person POV video of the shooting on his own social media pages. His Facebook and Twitter account has since been suspended.
According to The New York Post, the victims, WDBJ TV reporter Alison Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward, were reportedly gunned down because of using racist words while she was still an intern.
The shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II, filed a complaint against Parker for being racist. The supposed racial slurs were later deemed to be untrue.
"One was something about 'swinging' by some place; the other was out in the 'field,' " Greg Baldwin, assistant news director, commented about the said complaint. Parker was never reprimanded, but apparently, Flanagan thought she should have been.
After the reporter and cameraman were killed on air, Flanagan ranted about the supposed issue on Twitter while on the run from the police.
"Alison made racist comments," the rant reportedly said. "They hired her after that??"
Former colleagues noted that Flanagan's paranoia about being racially discrimnated was common back when he was still working in the company.
"That's how that guy's mind worked. Just crazy, left-field assumptions like that," Ryan Fuqua, a video editor in WDBJ, told NY Post, adding that the disgruntled ex-employee found offense even with "just common, everyday talk."
"He was unstable," he continued. "One time, after one of our live shots failed, he threw all his stuff down and ran into the woods for like 20 minutes."
Meanwhile, police investigation revealed that Flannagan's suicide could have been a last resort for the gunman. Cops reportedly discovered "a briefcase with three license plates, a wig, a shawl, an umbrella, sunglasses, a black hat, and a to-do list" in the car where he was found.
Tributes were given to both WDBJ TV reporter and cameraman killed on air, according to The Belfast Telegraph.
