Boyfriend of slain Va. reporter returns to anchor chair
Nearly three weeks after the on-air shooting death of his fiancée, WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst made an emotional return to the airMonday night, announcing that the "healing has begun."
Hurst was back in the Roanoke, Virginia anchor chair 19 days after his girlfriend, Alison Parker, and WDBJ-TV cameraman Adam Ward were ambushed and fatally shot during a live television interview at a community outside Roanoke. The woman being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, survived and was released from the hospital last week.
"I know the answer to what we all must do. It is to profess love, not hate," Hurst said Monday night in his return to the air. "To love one another and to love strangers."
Hurst said that Parker and Ward "projected a love and peace into our world that can never been taken."
"Don't forget their love," he added. "It will fuel us the rest of our days."
The shootings occurred as some 40,000 viewers across the central Virginia community watched. The footage quickly spread on social media.
The gunman, Vester Flanagan, fatally shot himself five hours later after a police chase.
Last month, Hurst told "CBS This Morning" that he and Parker were in "a white-hot relationship that burned full of love."
"We were living the dream, and that dream was shattered," Hurst said.
Calling her a teammate and partner, Hurst said the last he heard from Parker was a text around 3 a.m. after she got to work, saying, "Goodnight, sweet boy."