In the winter of 2015, a man named Phillip Perea, aged 41, ended his life in a tragic and public manner on a Monday morning in Manhattan. His death, which occurred outside the News Corp. building, the headquarters of Fox News, was the culmination of a desperate protest against his former employer. Prior to taking his life, Perea had been seen handing out fliers that detailed his belief that the company had ruined his career.
Perea, a former producer for a Fox-affiliated television
station in Austin, Texas, had been terminated from his position the previous June. In the months that followed, he took to social media to voice his grievances, posting a series of YouTube videos titled 'The American Workplace Bully.' In these videos, he spoke of what he described as a management cover-up and the 'dubious reasons' for his dismissal. His online posts painted a picture of a man in deep distress, with one of his final tweets stating, 'Congratulations FOX, this is all the money I have left to my name, $104'.
On the morning of January 26th, Perea stood on the sidewalk near Radio City Music Hall and shot himself in the chest. Police who arrived at the scene recovered the weapon and a suicide note. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after. The incident, which caused no other injuries, was a somber end to Perea's personal and professional struggles. The medical examiner later confirmed the cause of death. As this was an act of suicide, there were no suspects and no arrests were made in connection with his death.
