Gunman in Virginia TV shooting had history of workplace issues

The gunman in the shooting deaths of two television journalists in Virginia was a veteran anchorman with a history of workplace grievances who had previously sued a Florida station alleging discrimination because he was black.

While authorities said they had not determined a motive, perceived racism appeared to be a factor in the shootings, according to posts on social media attributed to the shooter and a fax that ABC News said had been sent by the gunman.

Vester Flanagan, 41, who went on the air under the name Bryce Williams, was a former employee of WDBJ7 in Virginia, where both of the slain journalists worked. He shot himself as police pursued him on a Virginia highway hours after the shooting. Flanagan, who was African-American, died later at a hospital, police said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the journalists, who were both white, were shot dead during a live television broadcast.

Hours after the shooting, someone claiming to have filmed it posted video online. The videos were posted to a Twitter account and on Facebook by a man identifying himself as Bryce Williams.

The videos were removed shortly afterward. In one video, a handgun was clearly visible as the person filming approached the female reporter.

In the posts on the Twitter feed, he accused one of the victims of "racist comments", and noted that a complaint had been filed with a government agency that enforces discrimination claims.

In a 23-page fax ABC News said was sent two hours after the shooting, he cited as his tipping point the racially motivated shooting that killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this summer.

Saying he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work, Flanagan described himself as "a human powder keg", the network said.

Flanagan aired similar grievances in a 2000 lawsuit filed in US federal court against a Florida station, WTWC-TV in Tallahassee. In that suit, he said a producer had called him a "monkey", and he accused a supervisor of calling black people lazy for not taking advantage of college scholarship opportunities.

The Florida case was settled and dismissed, court records show.

One of his former Florida colleagues remembered Flanagan as "quirky", but said he never displayed behaviour suggesting he would be capable of such a violent crime.

"He had his idiosyncrasies, a little quirky sometimes," said Michael Walker, the weekend producer at the Tallahassee station when Flanagan was working as a weekend anchor. "It probably wasn't any different than any other on-air personality."

Walker, who is also black, said he had not experienced discrimination at the station.

Flanagan had accused the station of terminating his contract because he had filed a report of racism with a state agency.