The Inoffensive Everyday Phrases
Innocuous phrases Alison Parker used every day to describe her job may have led to her death, simply because Vester Lee Flanagan thought they were racist.
The 24-year-old TV reporter who was shot and killed by the disgruntled ex-employee on Wednesday somehow angered him by using terms like ‘swinging’ by an address or going out into the ‘field’ while she was an intern at WDBJ.
It sheds further light on the murderer’s erratic behavior, details of which have emerged since he callously gunned down Parker and cameraman Adam Ward live on breakfast TV.
The report, seen by the New York Post, that was written by news editor Greg Baldwin read: ‘One was something about ‘swinging’ by some place; the other was out in the ‘field’.’
Parker, who was referred to by her middle name as Bailey in the documents, was never disciplined for the remarks.
But they appear to be the ‘racist’ comments Flanagan was referring to when he Tweeted in the aftermath of the deadly shooting.
Ryan Fuqua, a video editor at WDBJ, told The Post: ‘That’s how that guy’s mind worked. Just crazy, left-field assumptions like that.’
‘He was unstable. One time, after one of our live shots failed, he threw all his stuff down and ran into the woods for like 20 minutes.’
Trevor Fair, a 33-year-old cameraman at WDBJ, told the newspaper the words Parker used are commonplace but that they would routinely anger Flanagan.
Leave a Reply