TORONTO – The father of slain journalist Alison Parker called the murders of his daughter and her colleague “senseless” and that their lives were “taken by a crazy person with a gun.”
Speaking with CNN Thursday morning, Andy Parker shared memories of his daughter, his pain and grief followed by anger; the day after his 24-year-old daughter was gunned down on live TV.
“She was so loved by all, and my heart is broken,” Parker said. “I want to try and do something… meaningful for her life so this doesn’t happen to someone else again.”
READ MORE: Boyfriend of slain Virginia reporter Alison Parker speaks out in grief
His daughter and photographer Adam Ward, 27, of WDBJ-7 a local television station in Moneta, Va., were shot at close range with a handgun in the middle of an interview Wednesday morning.
VIDEO: Andy Parker on his daughter’s death – “I’ll never hear her voice again”
“I’ve gone through the usual emotions of being numb, and then uncontrolled grief and sobbing all-day long and then anger,” Parker said. “My soul’s been crushed.”
Parker also spoke passionately about tighter gun laws so “crazy people can’t get guns.”
READ MORE: Tributes pour in for journalists killed during live report
“If I have to be the John Walsh of gun control,” Parker said, referring to the victims’ rights advocate whose son was abducted and murdered in 1981. “I’m for the second Amendment, but there has to be a way to force politicians, that are cowards and in the pockets of the NRA, to come to grips to have sensible laws so crazy people can’t get guns.”
Police in Virginia said shooter Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, also known as Bryce Williams, was “disturbed in some way.”
READ MORE: What we know about Vester Flanagan aka Bryce Williams
“This gentleman was disturbed in some of the way things had transpired out at some point in his life,” Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton Jr. said. ”It would appear things were spiraling out of control, but we are still looking into it.”
Flanagan shot himself in a car after a vehicle pursuit with police. He later died in hospital.
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