[News] News crew gunned down live on air in Virginia.

Dave

Dave

Staff member
http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/law-enforcement-investigating-incident-at-bridgewater-plaza/34923086

A cameraman and a reporter were at a water park doing a fluff piece. As they were interviewing the park's manager, a gunman came up behind the cameraman & shot him, then gunned down the running reporter. The manager was not injured in any way. This was specifically targeted at the reporter and the cameraman.

Both have died & the gunman is still at large as of this writing.

The video is in the wild. If you post it here, spoil it. I'm not going to post it but I won't stop anyone else from doing so.

edit: The lady being interviewed was shot as well. They initially said she was unhurt.
 
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Police say they know who did it. Just got that from CNN and the General Manager of the station. It gets even worse.

The cameraman was engaged to be married to the producer of the station's morning show. It was her last day because she got another job at a different station in another town. She was there eating cake and celebrating her last day and then watched her fiance get murdered on live TV. Holy crap I can't even imagine.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-police-shooting-live-television-news-report/
Barb Nocera, an official with the chamber, told The Roanoke Times newspaper that Gardner was shot in the back during the shooting and was in surgery.
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It doesn't appear that there's a link to the shooting video in that article, for those who would prefer not to see it. Plenty of other online news sources are showing the video.[DOUBLEPOST=1440598286,1440597716][/DOUBLEPOST]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...nalists-killed-in-Virginia-shooting-live.html
According to reports, the suspect is currently being chased North on I-81. Police have a description of the suspect and have apparently tracked him to the motorway.
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Suspect is being chased by Virginia State police on I-81, if you can believe Twitter. I'm listening to Virginia State police scanner right now and haven't heard anything.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
What's interesting is that they are saying that he's being "pinged" on cell towers. They are probably using the Stingray system, which I'm personally against...but I may change my mind a bit if this helps catch the guy. Basically, it's a way of tracking cell phones by spoofing cell towers and hijacking the signal, getting "pings" for location and also being able to listen in to conversations, all without the parties knowing that it is happening. So I'm against the Stingray system, but am glad they have it up right now. So I guess you can say I'm conflicted.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Cranky told me about this, it's hit the news airwaves as far away as BBC News.
Dave said:
What's interesting is that they are saying that he's being "pinged" on cell towers. They are probably using the Stingray system, which I'm personally against...but I may change my mind a bit if this helps catch the guy.
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This is something the phone company can actually do, there's no guarantee they're using Stingrays.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Virginia governor is saying the shooter is a former employee. I'm getting a real "jilted lover" or stalker vibe.[DOUBLEPOST=1440599140,1440599079][/DOUBLEPOST]
PatrThom said:
This is something the phone company can actually do, there's no guarantee they're using Stingrays.

--Patrick
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Too quick for phone company intervention. That would have taken warrants & stuff that would have taken a few hours to get. This was too fast to be anything but Stingray.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

VA police scanners are on different frequencies by division. I can hear them discussing it on the division 3 scanner, and trying to coordinate stopping him. They broadcast a description of the shooter and the car, and are discussing getting a national guard helicopter into the action.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Lee Flanagan (that's what it sounded like - they were talking fast) is a name that just came over the scanner. Former employee labeled "disgruntled", which makes sense. He'd have known the news report was going to happen.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dave said:
Too quick for phone company intervention. That would have taken warrants & stuff that would have taken a few hours to get. This was too fast to be anything but Stingray.
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You're probably right, but they wouldn't have been able to do anything (Stingray or otherwise) without already knowing who they were looking for. Also there's that thing about "exigent circumstances" which, given the current law enforcement climate, may have allowed them to procure carrier cooperation without a warrant.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
PatrThom said:
You're probably right, but they wouldn't have been able to do anything (Stingray or otherwise) without already knowing who they were looking for. Also there's that thing about "exigent circumstances" which, given the current law enforcement climate, may have allowed them to procure carrier cooperation without a warrant.

--Patrick
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They know who he is and have been in pursuit. So I stand by my Stingray, damn it.

And listening to the coordination on the scanner is damned interesting.

http://tunein.com/radio/Virginia-State-Police-Division-3-s145408/
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Dave said:
So I'm against the Stingray system, but am glad they have it up right now. So I guess you can say I'm conflicted.
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Most systems like this do have their uses in tracking down fugitives/criminals - be it tracking a cell phone, a number plate through traffic cams, following credit card trails, satellite surveillance, and so on. The problem is in defining who can use it, and when, and on who. Loss-of-freedom-for-security-and-all-that. I'm usually conflicted on this sort of issues too.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

they're talking about cell tower pings from "10 minutes ago" and "45 minutes ago".

This wouldn't fit in with how stingray works, which works by fooling phones into thinking it's a cell tower, close by.
 
Covar

Covar

PatrThom said:
You're probably right, but they wouldn't have been able to do anything (Stingray or otherwise) without already knowing who they were looking for. Also there's that thing about "exigent circumstances" which, given the current law enforcement climate, may have allowed them to procure carrier cooperation without a warrant.

--Patrick
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As much as I hate to defend a spooky big brother tracking system like this, there is a larger practical benefit which would be cell phones and 911 calls. Being able to determine the location of a 911 caller who is unable to give their location in an emergency could be a huge boon and save lives. With sufficient oversight and restrictions of course.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dave said:
They know who he is and have been in pursuit. So I stand by my Stingray, damn it.
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I'm not saying it isn't one.
I'm just saying that we shouldn't be changing our thoughts on how invasive they are unless/until they admit they were using one.
Also, if this person is actually running around with his actual cell phone on his person, then he's not much of a tactician.
Covar said:
Being able to determine the location of a 911 caller who is unable to give their location in an emergency could be a huge boon and save lives. With sufficient oversight and restrictions of course.
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This already exists, and has for a while.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Covar said:
As much as I hate to defend a spooky big brother tracking system like this, there is a larger practical benefit which would be cell phones and 911 calls. Being able to determine the location of a 911 caller who is unable to give their location in an emergency could be a huge boon and save lives. With sufficient oversight and restrictions of course.
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Yeah, I don't mind the pings, it's more the call monitoring and DDoS capabilities of Stingray that bothers me.

In other news, they are loaded for fucking bear going after this guy. Multiple US Marshalls (of which my cousin is one!), FBI, ATF, many many many different jurisdictions of police. This guy done fucked up. I hope he's caught instead of taking his own life.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Dave said:
Yeah, I don't mind the pings, it's more the call monitoring and DDoS capabilities of Stingray that bothers me.

In other news, they are loaded for fucking bear going after this guy. Multiple US Marshalls (of which my cousin is one!), FBI, ATF, many many many different jurisdictions of police. This guy done fucked up. I hope he's caught instead of taking his own life.
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Gunning people down in front of a camera and running like this pretty strongly implies an intended suicide by cop IMHO
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
VESTER Lee Flanagan, not Lester. And they are saying now that he may well have an accomplice. Now THAT dude is fucking stupid if true.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Jesus, this guy needs more names. His full name is William Epperly Vester Lee Flannagan II. He's the one in the middle below. The reporter killed is on the left. Her live in boyfriend (who was a secret boyfriend she just moved in with) is the one on the right.

[PICTURE REMOVED BY GASBANDIT, NOT PICTURE OF ACTUAL PERP]
X
 
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Frank

Frank

Holy fucking Christ.

Well, I guess I saw the Twitter account just under the wire. It's gone 10 seconds later.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Seeing the picture, oh boy. Can I start the countdown 'till this is turned into a race issue by some fuckwads somehow? 5....4....
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Bubble181 said:
Seeing the picture, oh boy. Can I start the countdown 'till this is turned into a race issue by some fuckwads somehow? 5....4....
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He made it into a race issue. Accused the reporter of racist comments and upset she filed a complaint with HR about him.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Already has been. Also a gun control debate. But this screams jilted lover (or stalker) to me. Girl is in a secret 9 month relationship with a guy and just moves in with him. Couple days (week or so) later a guy she used to work with kills her on live TV?[DOUBLEPOST=1440602566,1440602543][/DOUBLEPOST]
DarkAudit said:
He made it into a race issue. Accused the reporter of racist comments and upset she filed a complaint with HR about him.
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Ooh. Now THAT I didn't know.
 
Frank

Frank

He doesn't seem to be the most stable sort. His Twitter account was full of bragging about being a high end male escort.
 
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