WDBJ-TV / AP
This undated file image made available by WDBJ-TV shows reporter Alison Parker, left, and cameraman Adam Ward. Parker and Ward were shot and killed by a former co-worker on Aug. 26.
Published Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 | 10:09 a.m.
Updated Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 | 3:16 p.m.
ROANOKE, Va. — The scene inside a Virginia high school auditorium sounded more like a celebration of life Monday than a visitation after a death as the family of a cameraman who was slain on live TV greeted well over 1,000 mourners at a hometown reception.
Adam Ward's father, Charles "Buddy" Ward, exchanged long hugs with just about anyone he came in contact with at the stage, where the slow-moving line went past his son's open casket. Pop music softly played on the speakers.
Salem High School opened its doors to the community to honor Ward, an alumnus. The 27-year-old cameraman for Roanoke television station WDBJ-TV, along with reporter Alison Parker, was gunned down last week by a former co-worker.
The family of Ward, a 2007 graduate of the school, asked visitors to wear colors of his favorite teams, Virginia Tech and Salem High. He played football for the high school's Spartans on two state championship teams. His funeral is set for Tuesday at First Baptist Church in Roanoke.
Members of Salem High's football team, wearing the team jerseys, were among the first people to enter the school.
Principal Scott Habeeb said Ward "loved life and he was truly kind to people." Habeeb was the offensive line coach when Ward played middle school football, was one of his teachers as a high school freshman and was an assistant principal for Ward's final three years of high school.
Ward's father is a retired guidance counselor at the school, which Adam chose to attend even though he lived in another district.
The Ward family had stayed out of the spotlight since the Wednesday shootings. Ward and Parker had been on an early morning assignment at Smith Mountain Lake when Vester Lee Flanagan walked up and shot them and Vicki Gardner, a Chamber of Commerce official, with a 9mm Glock pistol during a live interview. Ward and Parker died at the scene and Gardner is recovering in a hospital.
They were shot down as thousands of viewers across the central Virginia community watched and the footage quickly spread to millions on social media. Flanagan shot himself as police pursued his car. He died hours later.
Tributes to Parker and Ward quickly poured in on social media. Parker was considered a rising star at the station and had recently moved in with her boyfriend, WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst.
Ward was engaged to morning show producer Melissa Ott, who had recently gotten a job in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was celebrating her last day working in Roanoke when the shooting happened. Ward and Ott, of Gibbstown, New Jersey, were planning to get married in July 2016.
"Adam, I will never find a man so happy, selfless, protective, funny, or charming like you. You were the one. You understood me. My soulmate. I will always love you. Please watch over me and keep me strong. Enjoy the endless tech games in your heaven. I love you so much," Ott wrote in a Facebook post.
Pictures of the couple frequently show them at football games, which Ward loved to attend when he wasn't playing tennis. Even when cheering for Ott's alma mater, Penn State, pictures show Ward continued to wear a Virginia Tech hat with a Penn State shirt. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 2011 with a degree in communication.
"Adam was the one with the painted chest in 20 degree weather screaming the loudest from the end zone," his obituary says.
In 2013, Ward took a picture of himself donating blood the week of a Virginia Tech football game against arch rival Virginia, noting the blood's resemblance to one of the school's official colors.
"Its fact. I bleed chicago maroon. #beatuva," Ward said in a Tweet.
The only other school that rivaled his love for Virginia Tech was Salem High.
Friends have described Ward as especially close with his parents, and he and his father were scheduled to cover Salem High football games for WDBJ on Friday night before the shootings occurred.
"I don't know if there has ever been another person who better embodied what it meant to be a Spartan than Adam Ward. To know him was truly to love him. His smile was the brightest; his heart was the biggest; his enthusiasm was the most contagious; his work was the hardest. Adam was without a doubt the easiest-to-like kid who ever walked the halls of SHS," Habeeb wrote on Facebook.
