The fired Virginia reporter who claimed responsibility for the on-air slayings of his colleague and her cameraman had a track record of claiming racism in the workplace and wrote a 23-page manifesto that called the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting the final straw before he bought a gun.
In the letter sent to ABC News two hours after the shooting, Vester Lee Flanagan II--who was raised a Jehovah's Witness in California--details his sinister reasoning for Wednesday's slayings.
Dylann Roof, the Virginia Tech shooter, Columbine and Jehovah himself all factored in, he wrote.
'As for Dylann Roof? You (deleted)! You want a race war (deleted)? BRING IT THEN YOU WHITE …(deleted)!!!' he wrote in his final screed.
Just two days after the tragedy in Charleston, Flanagan bought a gun, he said
Quote
'What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims' initials on them.'
A little over three months later, Alison Parker and Adam Ward would be killed--slaughtered on live TV outside Roanoke.
Flanagan also mentions the Virginia Tech mass shooter Seung Hui Cho.
He calls the madman 'his boy' while also applauding the Columbine High School killers.
What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims' initials on them
Vester Flanagan II's manifesto
'Also, I was influenced by Seung–Hui Cho. That's my boy right there. He got NEARLY double the amount that Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold got…just sayin.'
Also in the letter, which he at one point refers to as his 'Suicide Note for Friends and Family', Flanagan lists grievances including racial discrimination at work as well as segxwal harassment and bullying.
He writes that he's been attacked by black men and white women as he discusses the difficulties of going through life as a gay man of color.
While Flanagan says the Charleston shootings were the tipping point for him, it's clear he's been unwell for some time--and he admits as much.
'My anger has been building steadily...I've been a human powder keg for a while…just waiting to go BOOM!!!!'
Hours after he sent ABC News the fax, Flanagan reached out again, this time by phone.
He told them he'd killed two people that morning and that the cops were after him and 'all over the place.'
'This gentleman was disturbed at way things had turned out at some point in his life. Things were spiraling out of control,' Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. 'Bill' Overton Jr. later said at a news conference.
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