Roanoke Stations Cover VA Tech Shooting and Lockdown

The Roanoke-Lynchburg stations are in scramble mode after a cop was shot dead at Virginia Tech a little while ago.

News leader WDBJ, part of Schurz,  has a text-only Live Stream feed on the topic on the WDBJ7.com home page, with updates just about every minute from the station, the school newspaper, and various eyewitnesses.

“EWS7 reports police confronting students walking around on campus. DO NOT GO WALKING AROUND!!! Not Safe!” reads a post at 2:33.

WDBJ video is linked to on the CNN.com home page as of 2:30 ET, as is that of Media General’s WSLS Roanoke.

CNN’s WSLS feed shows heavily armed military men on the VA Tech campus, but I’m not seeing any moving pictures when I go to WSLS.com: just a text story and a photo of what is presumably the school parking lot (the photo does not seem to have anything to do with the shootings).

A second person was killed in the shooting as well. Virginia Tech was, of course, the site of a mass shooting in April 2007.

WSET, part of Allbritton, is streaming its anchors and reporters live on WSET.com, updating viewers on the shootings, and asking eyewitnesses to call the station.

Fox affiliate WFXR had a feature about women’s soccer leading off its home page as of 2:40.

Reporters on site are waiting for more information.

Tweeted WDBJ reporter Chris Hurst (@chrishurstwdbj):

Folks ill be going live from #vt hopefully before the top of the hour on campus. Honestly don’t have new info for you. Very eerie.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.