Andy Parker - For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Fathers Fight for Gun Safety

The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Fathers Fight for Gun Safety

with Ben R. Williams

Foreword by

For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Father's Fight for Gun Safety

Copyright 2019 by Andy Parker

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover and interior design by Rain Saukas.

Print ISBN: 978-1-948062-32-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-948062-33-6

Printed in the United States of America.

This book is for all the members of the club that no one wants to join.

Foreword by

I have known Andy Parker and his family for many years. I campaigned with him when he once ran for office and got to know his daughter, Alison, when she served as a dynamic television news reporter in Roanoke, Virginia. Her tragic deathshot along with her cameraman, Adam Ward, on live television by a disturbed former employee of their stationstill haunts our state.

Andy has turned his boundless energy and passion to the important task of promoting meaningful steps to reduce gun violence. And he is doing this for Alison.

This is a painful story of loss and violence. It is also a story of indifference. Andys frustration with legislative inaction and the empty words of leaders brims over in these pages, just as they do when you meet him in person. As a grieving dad with a powerful and earned sense of righteous indignation, he doesnt mince words. Sometimes he makes folks, even his own friends and family, uncomfortable with the way he expresses his outrage. But he is candid in acknowledging this personal challenge and affectionately points out how his wife, Barbara, often pulls him back when he goes too far. And after all, who among us can fault a suffering father for candidly expressing the raw emotion that still wells up every morning when he awakens to find his daughter gone?

Of course, Andys larger pointthat gun violence is out of control and we have lacked the will to do simple things to reduce this scourgeis correct. We need his voiceand the voices of all survivorspushing, encouraging, and even shaming us until we take appropriate steps to keep people safe.

Alison was a wonderful and talented young journalist. Her life continues to inspire Virginians, and her tragic death has helped change political will in the state where the NRA has its headquarters. In Virginia, the NRA rankings of candidates used to be all-powerful, and getting an F from the group was seen as ending any chance of electoral success. Now, an F ranking from the NRA is a badge of pride for many candidates and poses no challenge in winning a campaign.

We all know an Alison, a person whose life has been cut short by needless gun violence. Possibly it was in a high-profile crime like a mass shooting or Alisons own death on live television. Maybe it was in a crime in a nearby neighborhood, barely covered by any media. Or an accidental shooting, such as when a child finds an unsecured gun in a drawer or on a shelf. Or a suicide driven by momentary or chronic despair. Or a murder brought on by domestic violence. Each of these deaths is a tragedy, and each calls out to us to act.

Evil exists not just because of its perpetrators. It exists because of bystanders. Will we continue to be bystanders to gun violence? That is the question posed by Andy Parker. The question is a painful one, but it has to be asked, and it has to be answered.

On August 26, 2015, my daughter, Emmy Awardwinning reporter Alison Parker, was murdered on live television.

She had gone to Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, Virginia, with fellow WDBJ employee and cameraman Adam Ward. They had gotten up bright and early to interview Vicki Gardner, the head of the local chamber of commerce. This was going to be a feel-good piece about how many great things were coming to the Smith Mountain Lake area. It was something for folks to watch in the background as they ate their bagels, sipped their coffee, and checked Facebook on their phones before heading to work.

Instead, the home viewers saw horror. A disgruntled ex-reporter shot Alison, Adam, and Vicki in cold blood. He was a lunatic, hired at the station in spite of what should have been abundant red flags, and fired only after showing so many signs of mounting mental instability that it was impossible to forge a pretext for keeping him on.

He had planned the shooting for months, claiming to be inspired by instructions from God Himself, or whatever voice sounded most like Gods within the howling storm of his diseased brain. He faxed a manifesto to ABC News on the morning of the murder, claiming inspiration from the Columbine shooters and the Virginia Tech gunman. He promised the Charleston church killer a race war. His outlook on the world had been molded by killers, and thanks to the countless news programs that probed for insight into the minds of these worthless individuals, there was no shortage of grist for the mill.

That morning, he drove to Bridgewater Plaza, strapped a GoPro camera to his head, and using a legally purchased handgun, shot three people, killing Alison and Adam. Then he strolled back to his car and uploaded the video to Facebook.

He uploaded my daughters murder to Facebook.

He then tweeted a link to the video to maximize his audience.

Nothing is ever lost on the internet, no matter how horrific or vicious. That video is still out there floating around, and it always will be. They may call it the Information Superhighway, but it runs above a toxic cesspool.

I havent seen that video, and I never will. I am grateful to whatever higher powers may or may not exist that I wasnt watching WDBJ the morning of the murder.

Would you believe that people have tried to show me that video? Its happened more than once. People have even tried to describe it to me. Many of them have meant well and have been surprised when I lashed out at them.

I know how the fucking thing ends. I dont need to watch it to see how it happened.

Even though I have never seen it, it is hideous enough to know that its out there, floating in the digital ether, just a few clicks away for any sick son of a bitch who wants to see an innocent young woman gunned down in cold blood.

Anyone who chooses to watch that video will not merely see my daughter die. They will also see the moment I died. The person that I used to be is gone, obliterated like a sandcastle in a windstorm.

My heart stopped on August 26, 2015. I still think, speak, and eat on occasion, but Im a different person now, a dead thing made animate through some cruel miracle. To paraphrase Cormac McCarthy, for the rest of my life, the shadow of the axe will hang over every joy.