Former employee apparently commits suicide at Fox Network's NYC headquarters
By RYAN GORMAN
A former Fox affiliate employee apparently shot himself dead Monday morning outside the network's midtown Manhattan headquarters.
Phillip Perea, 41, was dead on arrival at nearby Bellevue Hospital of a gunshot wound to his chest. He reportedly died after protesting the station because he believes executives with parent company News Corp. ruined his career.
Perea, from Fort Worth, Texas, recently made dozens of disturbing videos claiming Fox ruined his career and that he was going to be a martyr.
The last one was uploaded Monday morning only hours before Perea took his own life.
Police swarmed the building at 46th Street and Sixth Avenue, only one block from Times Square and across the street from Radio City Music Hall, just after 9:00 a.m., police told AOL News.
Perea, who was first identified by the Wall Street Journal, was found unresponsive in front of the headquarters of News Corp, Fox Networks' parent company, according to police.
Authorities would not confirm to AOL News the circumstances surrounding the horrific incident, but the New York Post is reporting the man was protesting the Republican-leaning news network just minutes earlier.
He reportedly shot himself after being asked to leave, according to both papers, which are also owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Cops also declined to comment on the contents of a note found in his possession, but the WSJ claims it linked to a YouTube video detailing Perea's complaints about the network.
Videos uncovered by AOL News titled "The American Workplace Bully: How FOX News Ended My Career," paint the picture of a disgruntled former employee who he believes was outed as part of a master plot against him.
The videos, of which there are a total of 35, contain recordings of conversations between Perea and coworkers. They were uploaded to YouTube between July of last year and Monday morning.
The most recent video starts with the chilling intro "you can murder a man without killing him" before segueing into another screen where he claims "righteous cause demands a martyr."
Perea worked for Austin affiliate KTBC for 10 months ending in June 2014, according to a statement from Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernathy.
"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy," Abernathy added.
The suicide was bizarrely first tweeted about by Fox News host Geraldo Rivera.
"Unconfirmed but word is someone handed security guard a note then went outside and shot himself in front of my Fox News office. Unconfirmed," Rivera wrote on the social media network.
The shooting comes only one day after a murder-suicide at a Home Depot about 23 blocks south, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.
**Editor's note: Earlier reports indicated Perea was a former employee of Fox News Channel, they appear to have been in error. AOL News has corrected this report.**
