Former Tallahassee colleagues recall Virginia shooter Bryce Williams

Suspected Roanoke gunman Vester Lee Flanagan II never really fit into the collegiality of the tight-knit WTWC NBC 40 affiliate in Tallahassee, former co-workers recalled on Wednesday.

Flanagan, 41, who also went by Bryce Williams on air and worked as a news anchor and reporter in Tallahassee from 1999 to 2000, shot and killed TV reporter Alison Parker, 24, and photographer Adam Ward, 27, early Wednesday during a live broadcast on a boardwalk outside Roanoke, Virginia. A third person remains hospitalized.

Flanagan died several hours later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Former co-workers said during the year he worked at the station as a weekend news anchor and night reporter three days a week, he seemed distant and never immersed himself in the camaraderie of small-market TV news.

“We all felt back then like he was off-kilter,” said Kimberly Moore Wilmoth, who worked as a reporter at the station from 1998 to 1999. “But I never felt like it was anything to this degree.”

She said when she heard Flanagan was the suspected shooter, the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

Flanagan never socialized with the crew after work and never became close with anyone there, Wilmoth said.

“He couldn’t laugh at his mistakes,” she added. “He couldn’t laugh at himself. I think he took himself out of the group rather than us pushing him out.”

As an example of Flanagan’s sometimes distant behavior, Wilmoth distinctly remembered two on-air incidents.

Once, he flubbed a line during a celebrity spelling bee that drew laughs from everyone except for Flanagan, who became angry. Then there was the time he was doing a standup about flooding in nearby Thomasville, Georgia.

As Flanagan talked about the rising water levels, an elderly man was trapped inside a car behind him calling out for help.

“And Vester doesn’t,” Wilmoth said. “It was like he was using this poor, trapped elderly man as a prop.”

The local NBC station stopped broadcasting newscasts in November 2000, the same year Flanagan sued the station for racial discrimination. The federal lawsuit named several former co-workers, including Mike Walker, as potential witnesses.

Walker worked with Flanagan as a producer at the NBC affiliate on the weekend news desk toward the end of the station’s broadcasts.

As he heard news of the Roanoke shooting, Walker said one thing came to mind.

“I’m shocked,” he said. “I would never think this former professional would stoop to something this despicable. It’s really sad. It’s really disappointing.”

Walker, who now works as a multimedia business owner, said he didn’t know Flanagan personally, but said he was “one of those people who really kept to himself.”

Nancy Dignon, a long-time TV meteorologist in Tallahassee, said she and other co-workers have been in contact throughout the day.

“As you can imagine, we are all shaken,” said Dignon, who has been fielding requests from national and local media. “All of us are in disbelief. We’re angry at what happened and we are stunned. We’re all struggling right now and trying to come to terms with this.”