Virginia State Police
Virgina State Police Sergeant F.L. Tyler addresses reporters about Vester L. Flanagan, also known as Bryce Williams, off Highway I-66 in Fauquier County, Virginia August 26, 2015. A television reporter and a cameraman were shot and killed during a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday in an attack authorities said was carried out by a former employee of the TV station.The suspect, 41-year-old Flanagan, shot himself several hours later as police pursued him on a Virginia highway. He died later at the hospital, police said. REUTERS/David Manning

Virginia State Police officers allegedly threatened two BBC journalists who were among the first to cover the manhunt for Vester Flanagan. The suspect shot WDBJ TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward dead on live television on Wednesday afternoon local time.

Video-journalist Franz Strasser and the White House reporter Tara McKelvey were covering the manhunt after Flanagan had fatally shot Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, during a live TV reporting. The shooting suspect crashed and shot himself dead while the reporters alleged they had been threatened by state police.

Virginia State Police officers allegedly asked the reporters to delete the footage they had recorded. Otherwise, the officers allegedly said they said they would seize their camera and car.

“Just at the scene of the suspects shooting on I-66,” Strasser wrote on Twitter, “Police told me to delete footage or lose camera.” In another tweet, he wrote he was too far away to get any good footage. One officer threatened to tow his car and take his camera, he wrote.

Strasser added the officer watched him delete one file and let him go. Another officer apologised to the reporters and said they should understand, he explained in another tweet. He posted that McKelvey had recorded the encounter on her phone and later called the recording “unusable.”

McKelvey seconded Strasser’s take about the officer threatening them. “I just left the site where the suspect reportedly shot himself. Cops took our camera and said they would also take our car then let us go,” she wrote.

Strasser wrote he had two options: either not being able to work for the rest of the day with no camera and car, or delete the footage. He posed that he had chosen the latter.

According to Strasser’s Twitter profile, he works for the BBC US and does video features on culture, immigration & trends across the United States.

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