Page 44 - Jeff Marks News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> i think i'm going to step out of my role as a former journalist and say i'm not really sure whether i want him to live or die. if he dies, then he took the coward's way out. and if he lives, he goes on trial and goes to prison for the rest of his life. >> that was the general manager, jeff marks, talking right there. moments after that television station was notified that flanagan was alive. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has been following this story from the d.c. bureau. pete, bring us up to speed the very latest on this. the initial reports were that flanagan was sought by ...

And it helped. of course, i haven't talked to trooper neff but it helped in this case. >> how instrumental was the video that was aired live and the image of his face that was captured? >> ma'am, i won't comment on that. i have not reviewed the video. i'll defer to the sheriff. it is under investigation. >> sure. >> did that give you guys a lead of who that person was or did you already have a suspicion? >> we were able to from the investigation on scene and secured the scene, we were able to develop mr. flanagan as a potential suspect an we went from there. >> sheriff, the document sent to ab...

And eventually after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. he did not take that well. we had to call the police to escort him from the building. since then -- well, he then filed an action with the equal opportunity -- >> okay. that was the station manager from wdbj, jeff marks, talking about vester lee flanagan who on tv went by the name of bryce williams. he was the disgruntled employee that authorities believe carried out this horrific murder of two local reporters this morning in southwest virginia. i want to bring in msnbc clint van zandt, a former fbi profiler...

Shoots him or herself and state police tell us vester flanagan shot himself. very critical condition right now. this has been a tough morning as you can imagine at wdbj seven. jeff marks has been through with us. what more do you want to add, jeff? >> fearless. that's an interesting term because our reporters and photographers are generally fearless. they will go after any story and i want to thank a few people. one is the sheriff in overton and the state police and the other authorities who have been working on this. they have kept us inform ed concerned this fellow would come to our head qua...

There may have been one about alison or adam, i frankly don't remember. but about members of the staff making racial comments. he was african-american. none of them could be corroborated by anyone. we think they were fabricated. but just as an insurance policy, we went around and talked to all of our employees who might have been able to be exposed to this and we have a pretty diverse workplace. and we got nothing about that. and the equal employment opportunity commission dismissed that and that was that. >> that was wdbj president and general manager, jeffrey marks, giving a little backgroun...