Capital Gazette newspaper editors publish Friday issue despite attack
Journalists cover Maryland shooting that killed their colleagues: ‘We are putting out a damn paper’
Hours after a gunman targeted the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, killing five people, its editors made true on their vow to publish the Friday issue of the newspaper.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Gazette’s reporters were back out covering the tragedy that had been inflicted on their own colleagues.
By late on Thursday evening, the newspaper posted its front page on social media as it went to press – “5 shot dead at The Capital” and “Laurel man, the suspected gunman, in custody”, read the headline and subhead.
As evidence grew that the gun rampage had been committed by an individual who specifically targeted the newspaper and its editing team, the response of the surviving journalists on the title was one of resolute defiance.
Within a couple of hours of the shooting, the Capital Gazette reporter Chase Cook, who normally covers the Maryland general assembly, was filing social media reports from the scene.
“I can tell you this: WE are putting out a damn paper tomorrow,” he said in a tweet.
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
The five victims have been identified and the Gazette published stories on each of their “bright, wonderful lives”.
They were named as Rob Hiaasen, assistant news editor; Gerald Fischman, editorial page editor; Wendi Winters, special publications editor; Rebecca Smith, sales assistant; and John McNamara, staff writer. “The loss is unimaginable,” said Joshua McKerrow, a photojournalist at the newspaper.[NEW]
The paper’s community news editor, Jimmy DeButts, also struck a note of resistance against the shooter’s violent hatred. “Reporters & editors give all they have every day. There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays – just a passion for telling stories from our community,” he said.
Another Capital Gazette reporter, Pat Furgurson, reported from the evening press briefing on the tragedy at his own workplace. Furgurson briefly talked to his fellow reporters after the briefing ended.
Visibly shaken, he said that the victims were “just trying to do their job for the public. Something like this might happen in Afghanistan or Iraq or something like that but you don’t expect it in a sleepy office across the street from a local mall.” However, he insisted “we’re still putting out a newspaper” and that the Capital Gazette would be out tomorrow.
As the evening progressed, details emerged of how the shooting had been deliberately targeted at the newspaper. Journalists who survived the gun rampage gave eyewitness accounts of how the shooter had entered the newsroom and apparently sought out editors of the paper as his victims.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter for the Capital Gazette, told CNN that he noticed the path the gunman took. “I know that two of the editors he went after were in the same position as other reporters who were at their desks,” he said.
The suspect has not been named by police, but multiple news outlets have identified him as Jarrod Ramos, a 38-year-old man who had previously sued the newspaper for defamation in 2012.
He is in custody and police are investigating his home. They will provide an update later on Friday.
In an echo of the anger that quickly exploded from the student survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in February, Capital Gazette journalists expressed disgust at the lack of action coming from Washington over the latest gun outrage.
The staff writer Selene San Felice responded to news that Donald Trump had extended “thoughts and prayers” to the victims. She told CNN: “I’m not trying to make this political, but we need more than prayers. I want your prayers, but I want something else.”
Felice added: “This is going to be a story for how many days? Less than a week? People will forget about us in less than a week. I’m going to need more than a couple of days of news coverage and thoughts and prayers – our whole lives have been shattered.”
[NEW]The Baltimore Sun, sister newspaper of the Capital Gazette, ran an editorial highlighting the hostile atmosphere towards journalism in the US: “That’s why so many reporters across the nation got a sickening feeling Thursday afternoon – they couldn’t believe something like this had happened, except that they could.”
A fundraiser to help the Capital Gazette newsroom and staff hit $50,000 in 8 hours. Started by Bloomberg reporter Madi Alexander, the money will go towards medical bills, funeral costs, repairs, and any other unforeseen costs of the shooting.
