How WDBJ Was Able to Get Through This Morning’s Newscast After On-Air Slayings
— -- The heartbreaking task of getting back to work was the first assignment of the day for the staffers at WDBJ-TV in Virginia.
They returned to the news desk a day after two of their colleagues were fatally shot during a live interview.
"They're doing as well as can be expected," station general manager Jeff Marks told ABC News of his colleagues this morning. "They’re choking back tears and their emotions show, but they’re covering the news."
Anchor Kimberly McBroom, who was on-air Wednesday when the shooting happened, led the broadcast and the ensuing moment of silence in honor of reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, who died in the shooting.
Everyone on air this morning was wearing maroon and turquoise in honor of the pair; maroon is the color of Ward's alma mater, Virginia Tech, and Parker loved the color turquoise.
In addition to the support from outsiders, the CBS affiliate received physical support from sister stations in the Midwest, with Marks noting that several staffers from other stations have flown to Virginia to help.
"We’re very gratified by that and all the support from the people who have been here all night camped out and have brought flowers and placards and just want to say something to us," Marks said.
Later, at an afternoon news, conference, Marks said hey have received "countless" food deliveries to the office, which have been appreciated because "this newsroom moves on its stomach."
More than anything, the WDBJ staff appeared determined to share memories of their lost colleagues. They have been posting special stories on the station's Twitter account, including meteorologist Leo Hirsbrunner's memories of Ward’s coming over to his desk daily and hiding a candy wrapper so it would be visible in any segments he did later that day.
For Parker, they highlighted a sign reading “Hope” that she had on her desk to remind her of a child abuse victim she had worked with.
"She was doing what she enjoyed to do when she was killed and that makes it all the more heartbreaking but it also gives us here at the station and me and her family the slightest bit of comfort to know that she died at her happiest," said Chris Hurst, Parker's boyfriend who worked as one of the station's evening anchors.
The station's news director, Kelly Zuber, said this afternoon that it's the smaller details and memories that have hit their staff with pangs of grief, including one moment that the sports director had this morning.
She said he told her "I lost it when I saw his [Ward's] car in the parking lot and saw clothes in there."
Zuber said of her employees: "They cry, they hug, then they get the job done and that's all I can ask of them right now.”
One in particular is receiving extra attention from friends and relatives: Ward's fiancee, who was working her last shift as the morning news producer when he was shot.
"It is bad enough to find out that your fiancee is shot," Zuber said. "It's worse to be the producer of the show where that happens live. ... This is a really, really difficult time for her; she has family around her right now and is doing the best she can to cope."
