>> this is a breaking news alert. >> on their ambush. a reporter a photographer gunned down during a live broadcast at 6:45 this morning in virginia about 30 miles east of roanoke. just moments ago, someone posted unbelievably disturbing video of the murders on social media. you're looking at a still picture from the twitter page for it was originally posted. it has been taken down. the account suspended. we believe this is the shooter identified as vester flanagan. he also had a television in, bryce williams. >> we have been on the story since 8:00 on "good morning washington minutes ago, reports that flanagan killed himself during a pursuit with police.

this is a breaking story. let's go to sam sweeney and the newsroom. us? can you tell we have learned the shooter has taken his own life. this story is changing by the minute. as you said, he has taken his life. cnn reporting he did this as law-enforcement officials approached him on-66. in the last hour, as you also mention, the suspect in the shooting posted a cell phone video of him apparently shooting the reporter and in the cameraman. we are not going to show you this video, but i can to you it is horrific. he shoots the reporter multiple times. she runs away. in the video goes black. he posted this on his twitter within the last half hour. he also posted about his history he had with adam and allison, the reporter and photographer he allegedly shot. he reported alison and racist remarks and the photographer

went to hr after only one time working with him. in the last half hour twitter and facebook have suspended his accounts. the suspect him his name is vester flanagan, a 41-year-old former reporter but when by the on-air name of bryce williams. and right now we have learned that he has taken his life. this is truly a disturbing story and it continues to get worse as new details emerge. right now the one surviving victim, the woman who was being interviewed during the live broadcast, is in the hospital with gunshot wounds to the back. we have several teams on the way to this part of virginia and we will have updates throughout the broadcast. >> thank you. things continue to develop, statements, thoughts, and condolences about this act continue to pour in this morning. ginny governor terry mcauliffe spoke with abc just moments ago. >> i still find it unimaginable

that poor innocent victims lives to be taken, doing the job, talking about economic development in this tragedy occurs. it breaks your heart when he think of the families and so many friends and coworkers who are impacted by what happened today. we mentioned, responses like that coming in from all across the country. we have one of our reporters working to compile them and we will bring them to you as they become available. in the meantime, the station is really from this tragic loss. the morning to having to make this announcement about their own live on the air as it unfolded. >> at this time of loss, it will resonate in these halls for a long, long time as we remember in their short lives what -- theyd journalism and produced and what outstanding

people they were. aboutse announcements parker and ward stepped made on-air this morning at debbie d b.j. in roanoke -- wdbj in roanoke. >> abc news received a facts overnight from someone claiming to be bryce williams. in a statement just released, the network says "sometime between last night and this morning abc news received a facts from someone who says he is bryce williams. it is a lengthy document come a 23 pages. we are turn it over to authorities." the network did not say what information was included in the document. >> we're learning more about the reporter and photographer who were killed in the on-air ambush. joce sterman joins us with details. >> newsrooms are a family. tons of connections and wdbj is no exception. weren parker and adam ward

engaged or dating other people in their station. we went digging to find out more about these victims who were involved in this morning's tragedy. we want to tell you about them. first, alison parker. taste on what we've seen from her social media accounts and a little more information, she celebrated her birthday just one week ago today. yesterday she returned from vacation with family and friends in north carolina. she was on a live shot like any other. yesterday, it was at the zoo. today, she was gunned down with her photographer adam ward who was 27. they were often paired together as a team. becoming a reporter was a homecoming for alison parker. she is from martinsville, about an hour from roanoke. she had been an intern at the station when she attended college at james madison university. adam ward was also from the roanoke area and went to virginia tech. the general manager of wdbj said ward was engaged to the producer of the morning show who was in the control room this morning

when the shooting happened. the two of these people were assigned to the morning show, which means they got up in the middle of the night to bring the news to you first thing in the morning. >> we send people into war zones, dangerous situations and riots, and you worry they're going to get hurt. you send somebody out to do a -- how canurism and you ever expect something like this to happen? -- you use all of the words, senseless, devastated, those are all the news catchwords, but they all apply. as salmon to an, there's a third victim involved in this, vicki gardner who headed up a local chamber of commerce. back to alison parker and allison -- adam ward, alison was dating the anchor for wdbj chris hurst who tweeted emotionally about the situation, showing this picture that says they did

not sure this publicly, but alison and i were very much in love. we just moved in together. i am numb. he said it was the best nine months of our lives. we wanted to get married. he said she was the most radiant woman i've ever met will stop and for some reason, she left me back. she left her family, her parents, and her brother stop he said he was coveted by everybody iswdbj, also saying he heartbroken for adam ward's fiancée. we will have more social media reaction coming up in the newscast. we're learning their producer actually in the booth as this developed this morning, right there without live telecast. we followabc 7 as this breaking story. we will have live reports tonight on abc 7 news is starting at 4:00 and throw the day on our sister station news channel 8. you can find up-to-the-minute updates on our website wjla.com. we do have this update right now, we understand the suspect, the reports right now are --

>> he is alive. >> we heard yet turned a gun on himself. the report we're hearing is that he did not die from anyone's. we will continue to develop this and chase this down for you. >> we're getting updates from the police. there are still saying he turned the gun on himself, but we're hearing his body is in an ambulance and he is alive at this moment. we will try to sift through this and it you the very latest as a becomes confirmed. in the meantime, we have some other news, developing in the district, d.c. mayor is taking a new approach to keep illegal guns off the streets. john gonzales is at police headquarters with what she is asking for. >> this has truly become a war against illegal guns and our city. this afternoon, the number stands at 103, the homicide rate here in d.c., more than 40% higher than it was last year at this time. these numbers don't lie. and the mayor, who is been in

office for about seven months, she is asking the city council to expand police powers, but those who fight against these stop and frisk type laws, well, they are our he up in arms today . she essentially wants to make it easier to search people who are on parole or probation and immediately detain anyone who has violated their terms of release. >> to make sure sentencing guidelines are followed, supervision when we have violent offenders come home, that the proper supervision is in place as well. >> instead of doing the harder humidity work to build the police relationship with the people who live here, your program -- through programs and drafting of smarter, no code, they look for tactics that allow ,hem to round people up enmass detain them, and pump them for information. >> this law would be similar to one shot down two years ago by the city council, a law that would have allowed d.c. cops to

natalie search people, but detain them for up to 72 hours -- not only search people, but detain them from to 72 hours. 103 this year, last or so a total of 105 homicides total. staying in the district, metro employees could end up paying that price following a jarell met earlier this month that caused a commuter nightmare. the board is meeting today to review the final report into the investigation. the derailment of the orange line of an on passenger train cause delays that stretched more than 24 hours. metro later admitted in about a problem that caused the derailment, but never bothered to fix it. stay with abc 7 as we follow any new developments out of this meeting. >> washington monument back open, it was closed after another elevator malfunction forced visitors to walk down hundreds of steps last night. crews had to carry out several pregnant women who were second the top. the elevator was fixed this morning. issues with the elevators have

been going on since it reopened last spring. take a look outside right now, it is a gorgeous day as the dutiful weather continues. ryan miller is there with a look at your forecast. >> good afternoon. we are dry and comfortable. here's a look from the national harbor. clear skies across a good portion of the area. a little cloud cover in the western suburbs. degrees currently at reagan national with winds out of the west/northwest at 8 miles per hour. dew point temperatures in the 50's. that translates into low humidity, thus the comfort level this hour. in the 70's across maryland. 77 in the district. lower 70's west of washington dulles reporting 74. manassas, 72. with plenty of sunshine, anticipate middle 80's with couple temperatures all day long . northwest winds at four to eight miles per hour. tonight, open the windows in the northwestern suburbs, 56 to 66 degrees.

partly cloudy skies. it looks like another dry day tomorrow. details in a few minutes. >> underreport shows d.c. commuters suffer the most out of the roadways. they lose an average of 82 hours a year sitting in rush-hour traffic. d.c. drivers use the most gas, 35 gallons of increased fuel consumption due to the congested conditions. the congestion also cost the more than 1800 dollars extra. los angeles, san francisco, new york city followed. the big question, what does it look like right now? jamie sullivan has a check on traffic. >> it is not terrible, especially midday. if you construction projects, but nothing on our interstates. you get a good idea we are mostly in the green and up to speed. i want to start off in maryland on the capital beltway, working away on the inner loop him a closer toward chevy chase from silver spring. right at connecticut avenue, a left lane is blocked with a

kenexa that -- blocked with an accident. , heads-up up on 270 south done, accident activity at montrose. all local lanes reportedly blocked off. stage, in the clearing so should reopen soon. take a live look behind us near falls road. this is our traffic northbound. these are the local lanes, not backed up. we have some volume northbound. this is the southbound lanes were the activity is being reported. you are ok getting by. switching years to virginia, 95, a little volume building. this is mainly through fredericksburg. no crashes, but we have at about 35 miles per hour. that is going to be on the southbound stretch of 95. that is a look at traffic. not terrible. >> back to our breaking story twotop of the hour, the journalists, reporter and photographer in roanoke, who were shot and killed while doing a live shot on live tv earlier this morning. >> since then the manhunt is

underway to find the man behind the gun. one of our reporters from our sister station wset is on scene. we keep getting conflicting reports about the condition of the shooter. what can you tell us right now? >> abc has tweeted the man has shot himself in augustine county. earlier, officials were saying they were actively looking for vester flanagan, a.k.a. bryce augustine county. so far, that is all we have is the tweet. it is a very active scene your the bridgewater plaza where police say around 6:45 a gunman shot allison parker, a reporter and photographer adam ward. the media has been moved to this plaza were a press conference will be held. the sheriff officials, lastly heard, they were actively searching for him.

a disgruntleds employee. we have confirmed the 41-year-old vester flanagan, a.k.a. bryce williams, was an employee at wdbj who was fired about a year ago. and overnight, police confirmed he sent a 23 page manifesto to wdbj, and then turn it over to police. hopefully at a press conference, we will be learning a little bit more. >> thank you very much for that update. we now know the shootout happened in fauquier county, virginia along i-66. >> let's go to sam sweeney. he is much more on the story. >> i want to give you a timeline of when this happened. 6:45 this morning, that live report was taking place. then we learned he had somehow made his way up to fauquier county, about an hour west of washington, d.c. that is where law enforcement officials made their way on i-66

to approach him. when that happened, it is apparent -- we're learning he shot himself. we originally have been told by state police he killed himself. he is in an ambulance and listed in very critical condition. that is the latest of what we have. we are getting completing reports. this is a developing story. are nots the facts right when they first come in. state police retracting with a this set and are saying suspect known as bryce williams on-air or vester flanagan by his real name, is in very critical condition right now. back to you. >> thank you for that. we're going to take a quick timeout. moran is continuing coverage as we work on this on your ambush stoptwo journalists killed in the manhunt going. trying to figure out why this happened. >> we will be right back.

>> we are following breaking news. once again, a reporter and photographer for a tv station in roanoke, va shot and killed this morning and a third person wounded at the same time. >> this is all unfolding at our affiliate in roanoke, wdbj, the reporter and photographer are dead. the manhunt has been on the man behind the gun. that is where sam sweeney picks up the story which has been changing by the minute. >> we have been getting facts the shooter took his life and now we have learned in the last 15 minutes that virginia state police have retracted that and say he is fighting for his life in very cargo condition. i want to give you what is

happening the last couple of hours. at 11:00 this morning in and around 11:00, the shooter apparently tweeted out the video that he took while he was shooting those three people. he walks up to the reporter behind the camera a she is doing her live report. she sticks with her live report with a tourism official, and then you see the gun come into the camera and he shoots her multiple times. she is actually able to run away. you hear her screaming. then the camera goes black. he tweets he of fact shot this video and he has had some sort of history with alison and adam, saying she made racist remarks against him and adam had worked with him once and went to hr. some sort of history. and then he said he filed an eeoc, and implement discrimination -- employment this relation report with the state of virginia because of the way he was treated at the station. he allegedly was a reporter with the station. he went by the on-air name of

bryce williams, but israel name was vester flanagan. 41-year-old man, work at tv stations up and down the east coast. this terrible thing happened at 6:45 this morning, he shoots three people. the one woman, the tourism official, is now fighting for her life. she apparently is in surgery. she was shot in the back and also is in critical condition, recovering right now. a developing story. we're getting a lot of information as this broadcast was forward and we will bring you much more running up later on in the hour. >> just changing by the moment. it appears he is still alive at this moment, being rushed to the hospital as sam said. we are getting a lot of reaction to the story on social media. everyone from virginia governor to tim kaine sending out messages of condolence. let's get to jeannette reyes who has more on what is unfolding on social media. >> we have been following the

reaction since earlier this morning. i can tell you almost immediately after the story broke it started trending on twitter and facebook. a lot of people were sharing the reaction of shock and disgust and outrage at the way these journalists were gunned down earlier's this -- earlier this morning. it is rare that journalists are at a loss of words, but a lot of them this morning and even now are speechless, don't have much to say, are just shock. we do go on twitter and pulled reactions that caught our attention. one of them from robin roberts tweeting -- and then you have another from jenna's house from another station -- the tv news industry is small and we are all family. katie couric tweeted earlier today --

lester holt also tweeted -- mia shared something that was striking, she said -- that is been the sentiment of a lot of people. so unexpected, so shocking. another thing that has surfaced recently, similar to what sam was saying about this video, the shocking video that came out from the suspect, a lot of journalists segmented now want to retweet that. people did not want to share that video. they did no one to the horrible images, but they did say to share the images of the journalists who tragically died earlier this morning. we will continue to follow this story and pass it on to you. everysee so much violence

single day because of the types of stories we cover, and everyone in our newsroom completely horrified but what he was putting on -- by what he was put on twitter. stay with abc 7 as we follow this breaking news. it seems like there are new develop its every minute. we will have live reports today on abc 7 and news channel 8. you can find up-to-the-minute updates on her website wjla.com. about 35t learn in minutes, we are expecting a news conference around 1:00. we will be sure to bring you that as soon as it happens. >> let's change over to the weather department. i was a great forecast. what will we have later on? >> looking at fine weather all day long, low humidity's, comfortable temperatures. if you about our plans, the weather will cooperate. morning lows, 67 at reagan national. our average morning low is right around 70.

59 in frederick, 5090 gaithersburg, a pair of 63's in dulles and manassas. warming into the 70's, 77 at reagan national. mid 70's across northern virginia. the air temperatures are also comfortable. as we go to the next couple of minutes, when dew point temperatures, measuring moisture the atmosphere, in the 50's, comfortable. 60 degrees, a bit humid. above 70, he becomes sticky and oppressive. of 53now it is dew point in reagan national, 40's north and west of washington because of the dry air from canada. the pressure controlling eastern seaboard. the clockwise flow has been bringing in the cooler and drier air, controlling the weather on eastern seaboard. if you expand their view, there's an absence of high heat across the eastern seaboard where it is 88 and jacksonville. you have to go down to brownsville, texas, reporting 88.

clear skies across eastern seaboard. we're tropical storm erika. this is moving off toward the west. you will see a couple of things about this storm. it has when sustained at about 45 miles per hour. it will push toward south florida. that will occur for the rest of this week and into the weekend. if you planned to travel to south florida, you'll want to watch the weather. tropical storm eric at is expected to become shrunk or and could impact the weather in south florida this weekend. evening, 80's beginning of the nat's game. the next seven days, plenty of sunshine today, tomorrow looks humidity, comfortable temperatures. an uptick iny with the entity. sunday is our next chance of seeing precipitation. afternoon thunderstorms, 30% chance of those pop up sunday with highs approaching 90. it looks like with long-term computer models, approaching 90 degrees and staying with a high heat and humidity next week.

coming up, we will look at the beaches. >> once again, our top story continuing coverage, the two journalists shot and killed near roanoke. and adam ward. and a third person was wounded in the shooting as well. chamber of commerce president at smith mountain lake. much more at the 1:00 hour. >> the chairwoman has been upgraded, her condition has been upgraded to stable condition. she was previously listedn critical, so that is a great update. the search for the shooter is over. he is in custody. there were initial reports he had shot and killed himself. we understand he shot himself, but we understand he is still alive and in police custody. a press conference coming up at 1:00. we will bring it to you live here on abc 7. thank you for joining us this noon.

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