Virginia Shooting: Vester Flanagan Had Been Asked To Seek Mental Treatment

Vester Flanagan, also known as 41-year-old Bryce Williams on air, shot two former coworkers at WDBJ7 in Moneta, Virginia, where he was fired from in February. Twenty-four-year-old TV reporter Alison Parker and photographer along with camerman Adam, 27, were killed during a live broadcast at 6:45 a.m.  Following the incident, Flanagan turned the gun on himself and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at FairFax hospital, officials say.

Flanagan was reportedly ordered to seek mental health assistance or face termination from his past employer, with documents obtained by The Guardian stating that Flanagan had "behaved in a manner that has resulted in one or more of your co-workers feeling threatened or uncomfortable," according to the paper.

Then, following an initial warning to seek "employee assistance professionals" at a company called Health Advocate on July 30, 2012, Flanagan was again given one more chance to make it right on Christmas Eve that same year. He was fired just three months later, in which police had to escort him from the newsroom's building.

Mental Health issues in America: Statistics suggest that every year, about 42.5 million American adults (or 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States) suffer from some mental illness, ranging from such issues as bipolar disorder or depression to schizophrenia, with estimates released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), indicating that about 9.3 million adults or about 4 percent of Americans 18 and up experience "serious mental illness"--a condition that disrupts their day-to-day life, according to Newsweek.

Furthermore, some reports have suggested that viewing pictures or video from the shootings may have been especially disturbing and anxiety provoking.

Carolyn Levers-Landis, a clinical psychologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleaveland noted that even though people didn't experience face to face trauma of the incidence, seeing the social media from the unexpected violence and being powerless to stop it likely brought on an overwhelming sense of helplessness and even potentially depression, she told ABC News. 

Flanagan's state of mental health: After fleeing the scene of the shooting, Flanagan began tweeting about racist comments he said Parker had allegedly made about him and that he had filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report, among other things. He also tweeted a 56-second video of the shooting, which was later deleted by the social media organization.

The psychiatrist-in-chief at Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, Dr. Harold Schwartz, described Flanagan as insidiously dangerous. Dr. Schwartz had also sat on the state panel of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Flanagan had also received a number of grievances at work, ranging from sexual harassment, to bullying and even racial discrimination, wtnh reports.

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