Father of Va. journalist: "She would want me to tell her story"

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Thursday, August 27, 2015
Father of VA shooting victim speaks out
Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker who was fatally shot on live TV on Wednesday, said "she made me a proud dad."

The father of Alison Parker, who was fatally shot on live TV in Virginia, said his family is mourning, but wants to share memories of his daughter.



"She was a journalist first and foremost, and she would want me to do this," said Andy Parker. "She would want me to tell her story."



He said she excelled at everything she did and "made me a proud dad."



Father and daughter talked daily.



"She would always call me and say, 'You know, Dad, what'd you think of my package today? What did you think of the hits?'" Andy Parker said.



He said his daughter would have immediately called him if she survived. When he got no phone call after an hour, he knew that "it was not going to be good."



"They said, 'Well, come to the staging area near the crime scene,'" he said. "So, we went up there and you know I cried the whole time, the whole hour drive up there. And it's been like that. When I see a picture of her it just kills me."



The last weekend they spent together, they went kayaking - something that Alison loved to do.



"I went down by the river yesterday, the Smith River, where we used to also go kayaking," he said. "I just looked down the river and realized that she's, I'm sorry, that she's not going to be there with me."


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