Former Fox television employee kills himself outside News Corporation headquarters in New York
Philip Perea, who fired a bullet into his chest as employees were filing into the building this morning, made Youtube videos detailing his complaints
A former employee of a Fox television station in Texas shot himself this morning outside the New York headquarters of News Corporation, the Rupert Murdoch-owned conglomerate that owns the Fox network and Fox News, police officials said. He was pronounced dead in a Manhattan hospital.
In what appeared to be a suicide, the man, identified as Philip Perea, 41, fired a single bullet into his chest at about 9am as many employees of News Corporation and its sister company 21st Century Fox were filing into the building for the start of the work week. Witnesses said he had early been handing out fliers saying that the company had “ended my career”.
His name and past association with the company was first report by the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corporation and is in the same building.
The exact nature of his grievances wasn’t clear but officials said that both a suicide note and a gun was found at the scene, which is located on Sixth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan’s busy midtown district. He fired into his torso at around 9 am.
“An unidentified male sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest and was transported to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” an New York Police spokesperson said.
In addition to Fox News, a 24-hour cable news channel created by Mr Murdoch and his long-time lieutenant Roger Ailes, to compete at first with CNN, the company also owns the national network of Fox broadcast stations. Mr Perea seemingly had worked at the local Fox channel in Austin, the state capital of Texas.
Access to the Manhattan headquarters was being restricted by police this morning as they investigated the circumstances of the apparent suicide. Earlier, Mr Perea had also advertised his anger at Fox with postings on his Twitter feed, some with links to an eight-minute Youtube video detailing his complaints.
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