Chris Hurst, boyfriend of slain journalist Alison Parker, says bill could have prevented girlfriend's death
RICHMOND, Va. -- A Virginia lawmaker whose journalist girlfriend was fatally shot by a former co-worker during a live broadcast in 2015 is pushing for a new law he says could have prevented her death. The Roanoke Times reports that Del. Chris Hurst has introduced legislation that prevents a job candidate from suing employers for sharing information about past violent or threatening behavior.
Companies would also be immune from lawsuits for considering any violent episodes when hiring.
Hurst is a former Virginia news anchor who was living with Alison Parker when she and cameraman Adam Ward were killed by former co-worker Vester Flanagan while reporting for CBS Roanoke affiliate WDBJ-TV in August 2015.
Hurst said the station had been unaware of Flanagan's troubled history before hiring him.
In a 2016 interview with "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty for CBS' "Sunday Morning," Hurst said that Parker's smile was the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks about her.
"It's intoxicating," Hurst said, "and I never really thought in a million years I'd have a chance, and then at the holiday party, you know, we came together, but it was so much more than that.
"It was her sense of humor. She was goofy. She was a nerd; she was a calculus tutor, so she had all of this beauty, but she had brains and she had a sense of humor that I fell in love with almost instantly."
