WDBJ-TV anchor Chris Hurst, right, hugs meteorologist Leo Hirsbrunner during the early morning newscast today at the Roanoke, Va., station. Two of their colleagues were gunned down by a former station employee during a live broadcast Wednesday, authorities said.

MONETA, VA.— The fatal shooting of a reporter and cameraman unfolded on live TV during the early morning show, as tens of thousands of viewers watched a horrified anchor struggle to comprehend what had happened.

Within hours, the carefully scripted carnage carried out by a disgruntled former colleague spread to millions of viewers gripped by what had transformed into a social media storm. The governor initially described a car chase on his weekly radio show, with police on the shooter's tail on an interstate highway.

Then, social media posts referencing the slain TV pair surfaced on an account under an on-air pseudonym used by the gunman — culminating with a first-person video of the ambush filmed by the shooter.

Today, the grieving staff at WDBJ-TV came together for an emotional broadcast of its “Mornin”' show. At 6:45 a.m. — the time of the shooting that took the lives of reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward — the station observed a moment of silence, showing the victim's photos on the screens.

Anchor Kim McBroom, who was on the anchor desk during Wednesday's shooting and tried to reassure viewers immediately after the attack was broadcast, joined hands with weatherman Leo Hirsbrunner and fellow anchor Steve Grant.

The broadcast included a series of pieces on the shooting. One looked at the criminal investigation of gunman Vester Lee Flanagan II, the former WDBJ-TV reporter known to viewers by his on-air name Bryce Williams. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after the shooting.

His family released a statement expressing condolences for the victims' families and asking for privacy: “Words cannot express the hurt that we feel,” it read in part.

The social media post made Wednesday through an account under the name Bryce Williams had a 56-second video clip. It shows Vester Lee Flanagan II quietly approach Parker and Adam Ward, gun in hand, as they conduct an interview. But Ward's camera was aimed at the mini-golf course nearby instead of the reporter. So the shooter waited, cursing Parker under his breath, for 20 seconds until the live television picture was back on the reporter. Then he fired eight shots without saying a word.

The attack seemed carefully planned. Flanagan was captured in a rental car he reserved at some point before the shootings; his own Mustang was found abandoned at the local airport, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said. The interview was done at a shopping center not yet open for the day at a remote lake in Moneta, some 25 miles away from WDBJ's studios in Roanoke. The station promoted where the reporter would be, including a plug on Twitter just a half-hour before the shooting.

About three hours after the killing, ABC News reported it received a 23-page faxed statement from Flanagan.

Unlike so many crimes, which have to be pieced together in reverse, this one played out in real time on Twitter and Facebook. The station's live footage of the shooting was being shared before even station managers knew the fate of their employees. Some 40,000 viewers initially tuned in.

Flanagan was fired at least twice from small-market stations after managers said he caused problems with other employees.