Virginia gunman sent 'suicide note' to ABC News after shooting

Virginia gunman Vester Flanagan sent a "suicide note" to ABC News hours after killing two journalists on live TV.

In the 23-page fax, he said the Charleston killings in June which killed nine black churchgoers "sent me over the top".

"But my anger has been building steadily...I've been a human powder keg for a while...just waiting to go BOOM!!!!" he wrote.

Two days after the Charleston tragedy he said he purchased a gun.

He was later to use it to shoot dead former colleagues Alison Parker and Adam Ward as they interviewed a guest for WDBJ7 TV.

Alison Parker and Adam Ward were filming live when they were shot. Credit: WDBJ7

Flanagan wrote he was "all f****** up in the head" and claims "Jehovah" told him to do it.

His "manifesto" also cites Charleston killer Dylan Roof and Virginia Tech mass killer Seung Hiu Cho as influences.

In a rambling letter to authorities, family and friends, he writes a long list of grievances.

He claims he:

  • Was attacked by black men and white women

  • Was attacked for being a gay, black man

  • Has suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work

He also alleges he was the victim of "nasty racist things" while working at WDBJ-7 that drove him to sue the station.

Flanagan wrote that photographers were "out to get him" and "the chief photographer told his troops to record video of me if they saw me doing something wrong."

Flanagan posed this picture of him with a gun in the weeks before the shootings. Credit: Facebook

The reporter was sacked in 2013 and had to be escorted from the premises.

It is claimed victim Adam Ward filmed Flanagan's dismissal including the moment he refused to leave.

According to the Huffington Post, court papers from Flanagan's lawsuit say he told Ward to "lose your big gut" and flipped off the camera.

Flanagan's case was later dismissed.