Fired Fox Television Station Employee Shoots Himself In Front Of Headquarters Building: Said Fox ‘Ended My Career’
A former Fox television station employee shot himself in front of the network’s headquarters building Monday morning in New York City. According to Wall Street Journal, 41-year-old Phillip Perea of Irving, Texas pointed the gun to his chest and pulled the trigger. Prior to that, he was passing out fliers to passersby in front of the 21st Century Fox and News Corporation on 1211 Avenue of the Americas. The fliers lashed out at his former employer, with Perea writing on them that the corporation “ended my career.”
Police say Perea previously worked for a Fox station in Austin, Texas.
The disgruntled Perea shot himself just before 9 a.m. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center, but was pronounced dead an hour later.
A suicide note and gun were recovered by law enforcement at the scene, an official confirmed. An hour before the shooting, Perea had posted a tweet that bashed his former employer. The former FOX 7-KTBC employee also linked his message to a YouTube video which plays out the issues he had with the network.
RT cites a source who told the New York Post that security guards asked Perea to leave the area around the building, and when they turned to go back inside, they heard a gunshot.
New York Daily News adds in its report that the fliers Perea was passing out read, “The American Workplace Bully: How Fox News ended my career.”
The YouTube video Perea made in July 2014 names the station manager as “Mike” and informs him that his co-workers were “starting to fear you.” Apparently the manager in it tells Perea that he was making “some people uncomfortable” and were “afraid” of him. AOL News reports that at total of 35 YouTube videos have been uploaded by Perea since July 2014 until Monday morning.
Kris Lew, who works at a coffee truck next to the plaza, heard the gunfire from Perea’s gun Monday morning.
“It was ‘pop pop!’ Just like that,” Lew recalls. “The first one probably was a misfire.”
An investigation is currently taking place at the scene where the former Fox TV station employee shot himself.
This is a developing story.
The Inquisitr wrote about a Fox News employee’s suicide in December. Dominic Di-Natale, 43, was still employed by the news organization at the time and began his career with them in 2007. He worked as an international correspondent with the Fox News Channel.
Update: 3:17 p.m., EST
A spokesman from Austin’s Fox television station, Jack Abernethy, issued a statement that was posted on Fox News.
“This morning, a former employee at Fox 7-KTBC committed suicide outside Fox Television Stations’ headquarters in New York City. 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.”
[Image via Elite Daily]
