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Man Shoots Self Outside News Corp Saying 'Fox Ruined His Life:' Sources Say

By  Heather Holland and Trevor Kapp | January 26, 2015 9:35am 

 A man in his 30s was shot in an apparent suicide attempt outside the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Ave. on Jan. 26, sources said.
A man in his 30s was shot in an apparent suicide attempt outside the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Ave. on Jan. 26, sources said.
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DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

MIDTOWN — A man fatally shot himself outside the News Corp. building Monday, police sources said.

Philip Perea, a 41-year-old Texas resident and former employee of Austin's Fox 7-KTBC, shot himself in the chest outside 1211 Sixth Ave at 8:46 a.m., police sources said. The building houses Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Security in the building told police that the man said "Fox ruined his life" before pulling the trigger on himself, police sources said. He had been handing out flyers that said he had been "bullied" by Fox.

Perea worked as a promotions producer at the Austin television station for ten months until June 2014, according to an email Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy sent to employees on Monday morning.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy," Abernethy said in the email. 

He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police could not immediately provide more information regarding the incident.

"I heard two shots real quick — bang bang," said Kris Lew, a food cart vendor on West 48th Street near Sixth Avenue.

"I thought, who would be firing off shots in Rockefeller Center?"