DALLAS TOWNSHIP -- A young reporter and photographer were doing a live broadcast Wednesday morning when a former reporter approached them and fired at point-blank range.
What may be most sickening about this whole thing is that the gunman himself recorded what he did and then posted the video online.
After leading police on a chase through southwestern Virginia, the gunman shot himself in the head and later died.
None of us at Newswatch 16 knew the two journalists killed in Virginia. But their murders are something that touch all who work in broadcast news and something journalism students are feeling, too.
Two journalists, reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward were shot to death while live on the air near Roanoke, Virginia.
Now, many people are sending prayers to the victims' families, including Taryn Talacka, a communications student at Misericordia University near Dallas.
"There are no words to describe it. I was speechless! I got the chills immediately, I have them right now,” Talacka said.
"It's pretty ridiculous because you think this might be a situation that I’m in one day,” said James Jaskolka, the editor-in-chief of Wilkes University's college newspaper, "The Beacon." He knows journalists often can't predict the kind of situations they may find themselves in.
"Things like this, this kind of grudge, almost like senseless violence, you never really expect I don't think,” said Jaskolka.
The gunman fired during a live on-air interview, perhaps when TV journalists are most vulnerable. Reporters have to listen and respond to their subject during a live interview while also listening to a producer with an earpiece. And photographers are busy operating this live truck, making sure the interview looks and sounds great for you at home.
"I think you are vulnerable in that you're highly focused, right? You're hyper-focused on what's going on at the moment,” said Dr. Melissa Sgroi, the communications chair at Misericordia University.
"You really just get immersed in that moment and I think you kind of forget about the danger that there could possibly be to you as the journalist,” said Dr. Kalen Churcher, a communications professor at Wilkes University.
Reporters are rarely killed in the United States. Since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting its data on journalist deaths in 1992, eight journalists have been killed in the U.S., including the tragedy involving Parker and Ward. Students say that's eight too many, and there's a lesson in these tragedies.
"How do you deal with your own personal reaction to it, how do you deal with other people's grief and how do you all process it to do what's right and to get the news covered anyway,” Jaskolka said.
Newswatch 16 made the editorial decision not to air the video of the shooting. The professors and students we talked to agree airing that footage adds nothing to the journalistic value of the news story.
