The news director at the Virginia TV station that broadcast the fatal shooting of one of their reporters and a cameraman says the shock of what happened Wednesday is only beginning to sink in.

Alison Parker and Adam Ward died Wednesday after a disgruntled former reporter from the station WDBJ-TV shot both during the station’s morning newscast. The woman who was being interviewed, Vicki Garner, was wounded and is now in stable condition in hospital.

WDBJ-TV News Director Kelly Zuber says, while members of the news team have been grieving the loss of their colleagues and occasionally dissolving into “puddles of tears,” they have also been trying to carry on in their duties while paying tribute to Parker and Ward.

“Wednesday was a day of shock. Today is kind of a day of reality, and that brings whole new challenges today,” Zuber told CTV’s Canada AM from Roanoke, Va.

It’s still unclear why the shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II -- who went by Bryce Williams on-air -- chose Ward and Parker as the target of his attacks, but he had worked alongside both during his brief employment at the station.

Zuber said it seemed that the shooting was “timed to our live shot.”

She said what transpired Wednesday was “the worst case scenario” for a live broadcast, because viewers were watching the events unfold before them.

“Our viewers literally saw this happen live on the air… so not only were we grieving and having to deal with this, but our viewers were as well,” she said.

“I think that’s why we’ve seen such an outpouring of community support. They experienced this with us,” she added.

Roanoke “isn’t the kind of place where we have triple murders overnight,” Zuber noted, so it wasn’t uncommon for the station to report on live community events during the morning newscast.

They worked closely together for the station's "Mornin"' show, covering everything from breaking news to stories about child abuse.

Viewers had gotten to know Parker during these morning reports, Zuber said, adding that Parker and Ward were the station’s “A-team”: always eager to work, even if it meant starting their workday at 3 a.m.

“They just brought the sunshine with them,” she said.

Both reporters had “incredible career tracks ahead of them,” Zuber added. Parker, at 24, was young, but she had “so much anchor potential, so much reporting potential.”

Ward was the kind of photographer who would go the extra mile to get the perfect shot and would happily trample through several centimetres of snow and not complain.

“They were just great human beings to be around and had so much talent, but they didn’t exploit it and act like they were better than anyone else,” she said.

“They were just solid people.”