Wall Street Journal – by PERVAIZ SHALLWANI and REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN
A former employee of a Fox station in Texas shot and killed himself outside the front doors of the News Corporation building shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, a law-enforcement official said.
The building houses 21st Century Fox and News Corporation, which owns The Wall Street Journal.
The man, Phillip Perea, 41 years old, of Irving, Texas, shot himself once in the chest outside of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, the official said. Mr. Perea had previously worked for a Fox station in Austin, Texas, police said.
Mr. Perea had also been handing out fliers, which criticized his employer for having “ended my career,” moments before he shot himself, the official said.
“This morning, a former employee at FOX 7-KTBC (Austin) committed suicide outside FOX Television Stations’ headquarters in New York City,” Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernathy said in a message to employees Monday. “He was employed at our Austin television station for ten months and has not been with the station or FTS since June 2014. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.”
Kris Lew was preparing to open a coffee-and-food cart, the Cinnamon Snail, on 48thStreet at about 7: 45 a.m. when she “heard two shots—‘Pop. Pop.’—really quick,” she said. “I know what gunshots sound like…It was a thing where I thought to myself, ‘Those sound exactly like gunshots, but it can’t be, because we’re in Rockefeller Center.’”
A suicide note and a gun were recovered at the scene, the official said. Mr. Perea took to his Twitter page about an hour before the shooting, further criticizing his former employer and linking to a more than 8-minute YouTube video laying out his complaints.
He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, police said. A phalanx of New York Police Department detectives were at the scene investigating Monday and access to the building was restricted.
Heather Haddon and Mike Vilensky contributed to this report.
BS! You can’t have guns in NYC!