Though Vester Flanagan, the former WDBJ-TV reporter who killed reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, appeared to have mental health issues, he also was a racist, CNN anchor Don Lemon says.
"If one looks objectively at Flanagan’s actions and history, one can’t help but come to the conclusion that both are probably true," Lemon said Thursday in his daily radio commentary on
BlackAmericaWeb.
"Flanagan killed the two young people because they were white. He admitted as much. And yes, anyone who does what he did was also out of their mind."
In a long manifesto faxed to ABC News, Flanagan complained he had been discriminated against for years because he was black and gay. Former bosses and co-workers said none of the allegations were true and that Flanagan was temperamental with co-workers and wasn’t good at his job.
Flanagan cited the killings of several black church membesr in Charleston, S.C., earlier this summer by Dylann Roof as the final straw that led him to kill. Roof said in his own manifesto that he hoped to spark a race war.
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