Alison Parker and Adam Ward Slain On Live Television
JOHN BERMAN, CNN GUEST HOST: All right, welcome back to THE LEAD. Our top story, two senseless and shocking murders that happened this morning on live television; 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward, today, our thoughts and prayers are with their grieving friends and families.</s>PARKER: Hey, everyone. I'm Alison Parker. Photojournalist Adam Ward and I are putting the final touches on our special report.</s>BERMAN (voice-over): Their love of the job, their passion for their work, it leapt through the screen.</s>PARKER: Witnesses say that this is a day they will never forget.</s>BERMAN: They informed and delighted a community.</s>ADAM WARD, WDBJ REPORTER: In Salem, Adam Ward, News 7 Sports.</s>BERMAN: A community now in a state of pure disbelief.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place is in shock, as you might expect. There's a lot of crying and hugging going on.</s>BERMAN: Colleagues say 27-year-old Adam Ward and 24-year-old Alison Parker of Virginia affiliate WDBJ were unfailingly positive, relentlessly hardworking, and never shied away from a story.</s>PARKER: I wanted to go through a sleep study to see if my job impacts how I snooze. Adam and I work the same early morning shift.</s>BERMAN: Or a changing.</s>PARKER: My hobby is white-water kayaking.</s>BERMAN: In this profile from the station earlier this year, Parker spoke about her love of the outdoors and the arts.</s>PARKER: My dad was on Broadway back in the day.</s>BERMAN: Her father released a statement today, saying: "I find my grief unbearable. Not hearing her voice again crushes my soul." Both Parker and Ward began as interns at the station, eventually becoming a morning show team, as staff reporter and photographer.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adam was the kind of guy who, if he were on the way home and knew of something that needed to be done, he would turn around and go do it.</s>BERMAN: Ward was engaged to morning show producer Melissa Ott, seen here in a tweet this morning, celebrating what was reportedly supposed to be her last day at the station. Instead, she was in the control room when her future husband was gunned down. WDBJ's morning anchor, Chris Hurst, says he's numb after the news. Parker was his girlfriend of nine months and had just moved in with him. "She was the most radiant woman I have ever met," he posted on social media today, "and for some reason, she loved me back." Parker's last interview was with Vicki Gardner, the executive director of a local Chamber of Commerce. She was live on air when gunfire rang out. Gardner was shot in the back and is recovering at a hospital today.</s>BERMAN: And, as this unfolds, WDBJ stays on the story, with a broken heart, but not broken, because there's no greater tribute to great reporters than to keep reporting. We're looking at live pictures of that station, outside that station, right now, the tributes pouring in. Joining us on the phone right now is Solina Lewis, a friend of the photographer Adam Ward and his fiancee, Melissa Ott, the producer of the morning show, who was at work in the control room as this tragedy unfolded today. And, Solina, I understand this was Melissa Ott's last day, supposed to be her last day at the station.</s>SOLINA LEWIS, FRIEND OF VICTIM: It was, yes. She had just been offered a great position in Charlotte as a producer.</s>BERMAN: And Adam was going to move there with her, get out of the business; this was it for him?</s>LEWIS: Eventually. He was going to follow Melissa. I mean, they were just the most amazing couple. So they -- yes, they were getting married next year, and wanted to have a family. And they would have made the best parents together. And, you know, I just can't say enough how wonderful of a person both Melissa and Adam are.</s>BERMAN: I'm looking at these pictures of Adam on the screen with the smile, and the goofing around with pizza and everything else. He just seems like such a charming guy with so much life in him.</s>LEWIS: Yes, I think that's what's really hard to use the past tense about him is, he's goofy and wonderful and just so considerate. You know, I told the story it feels like a million times today, but he helped me put together furniture because I couldn't figure out how to do it when I first moved down here to Roanoke, both because he is nice and really never said no, but also because I'm sure he knew, as Melissa's friend, it would make her happy to do that for me.</s>BERMAN: They were good reporters, they were good journalists, good workers, but the more I hear about them, they just sound like good people, which makes this so, so hard. Solina Lewis, thanks so much for being with us.</s>LEWIS: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: We're going to have much more from Roanoke just ahead. But, first, our politics lead, throwing reporters some his news conference, calling a major news organization on Twitter, people seem to like Donald Trump's nonpolitical approach. But can it carry him through the primary season? We're going to talk to his campaign manager next on THE LEAD.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sit down, please. You weren't called.