 A gunman is on the loose after killing two broadcast journalists in a shooting that was captured on live television in Moneta, Virginia early Wednesday morning.
WDBJ camearman Adam Ward was filming reporter Alison Parker interviewing Smith Mountain Lake Chamber Director Vicki Gardner for a segment at 6:45am when about eight shots rang out.
Screams are then heard as the women duck and the camera falls to the floor. A person dressed in all black is then seen standing nearby with what appears to be a gun raised in one hand pointed at Ward.
The general manager at the CBS station later came on the air to confirm Parker and Ward’s deaths. Parker was 24 and Ward was 27.
‘It’s my very very sad duty to report… that Alison and Adam died this morning,’ WDBJ’s general manager came on the air to say after the incident.
Police previously reported that there were three injured, so there may be one survivor.
About 30 to 40 police officers are in the area, trying to track down the shooter.
A spokesman with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries confirmed that half of their department are searching the scene on shoreline and surrounding area for the shooting.
Meanwhile the Dudley, Burnt Chimney and Windy Gap elementary schools as well as Bedford County school have been placed on lockdown.
No description of the suspect has been released yet.
According to her bio at WDBJ7.com, Alison Parker was the station’s morning reporter. A local girl, Parker had spent much of her life outside Martinsville, about an hour from where she was tragically gunned down Wednesday.
Prior to her time at WDBJ, Parker worked near the Marine base Camp Lejeune for the Jacksonville, North Carolina bureau of WCTI.
She graduated from James Madison University just three years ago. While there, she interned at the local ABC/Fox affiliate and was news editor for her university’s nationally recognized newspaper, The Breeze.
Photographer Adam Ward was a Virginia Tech graduate who attended high school in Salem, less than an hour from the scene of his murder.
The two Virginia natives often worked together on WDBJ stories.
In April, they traveled together to Appomattox for the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. In February, the station posted photos of the duo to Facebook as they dressed up as bride and groom at a local bridal store.
Moneta is located in northwestern Virginia, about 40 minutes southeast of Roanoke |
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(Nana Kwesi)