CNN criticised for showing WDBJ footage ‘once per hour’

CNN was criticised after apparently announcing they would show the video of two journalists being shot during a live broadcast “once per hour”.

Distressing footage emerged of Alison Parker interviewing a woman on WDBJ, a news channel in Virginia, US, before gunfire is heard and the camera falls to the ground.

Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were both killed after a gunman opened fire at the Bridgewater Plaza near Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.

The woman Parker was interviewing has been identified as Vicki Gardner, a local Chamber of Commerce head was shot in the chest and taken to Carillion Roanoke Memorial Hospital where she went through emergency surgery. She is now in stable condition and recovering as per media reports from US citing statement from Carillion.

Viewers on Facebook and Twitter called for CNN to stop showing the video leading up to the killing.

After he shot two journalists on live TV and before he shot himself, Bryce Williams sent a message: “I’ve been a human powder keg for a while….just waiting to go BOOM.”

Those were the words the gunman wrote in a chilling fax to ABC News, according to the network. The document purportedly from the Virginia shooter came after he gunned down WDBJ-TV journalist Alison Parker and Adam Ward, spurring a manhunt that ended when he turned a gun on himself as troopers closed in.

The shooter — a former reporter for the Roanoke station — is dead, but the investigation into attack is far from over. Authorities say the fax to ABC, the gunman’s other attempts to reach out to the media and his social media posts just after opening fire could be key pieces of evidence as they try to pinpoint what led to the deadly shooting. Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said authorities weren’t sure about the gunman’s motive, but are looking at his past employment at WDBJ as well other evidence, including the fax he allegedly sent to ABC News in New York.