Annapolis shooting: at least five dead in attack on newspaper office Read more
Hours after a gunman targeted the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, killing at least five people, its editors vowed to publish the Friday issue of the newspaper while its reporters were back out covering the aftermath of the tragedy inflicted on their own colleagues.
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 in normal times 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.
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.
Play Video 1:17 Shooting at Maryland newspaper office – video
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.
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.”
(CNN) Two writers from the Capital Gazette said "thoughts and prayers" aren't enough after a gunman attacked their newsroom, killing five people and injuring two others.
Capital Gazette staff writer Selene San Felice, who covered the Pulse nightclub shooting when she was a student in Florida, said she remembered being upset hearing about the victims texting their families. Two years later, she was sitting under a desk texting her parents and telling them that she loved them, she said.
"I'm going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers," San Felice told Anderson Cooper on "AC360" Thursday night. "Our whole lives have been shattered, and so thanks for your prayers, but I couldn't give a f--- about them if there's nothing else."
"I have heard that President Trump sent his prayers," she said. "I'm not trying to make this political, but we need more than prayers."
"I appreciate the prayers. I was praying the entire time I was under that desk. I want your prayers, but I want something else," she added.
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Two Capital Gazette staff writers said they need more than prayers after their fellow colleagues were killed Thursday by a gunman.
"I have heard that President Trump sent his prayers. I'm not trying to make this political, alright?" staff writer Selene San Felice said. "But we need more than prayers. I appreciate the prayers. I was praying the entire time I was under that desk. I want your prayers, but I want something else."
At least five people were killed and several others were wounded during the shooting. The suspect, who law enforcement sources identified as Jarrod Warren Ramos, was arrested and taken into custody.
San Felice said editors were killed and she watched someone die in her newsroom. She and staff writer Phil Davis hid under their desks as the gunman reloaded and opened fire on the newsroom.
San Felice said she was texting her parents and telling them that she loved them, just like the victims of the the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting did.
"I just don't know what I want right now. Right?" she said. "But I'm going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers, because ... our whole lives have been shattered. And so thanks for your prayers, but I couldn't give a F--- about them if there's nothing else."
Capital Gazette staff writer Phil Davis questioned society's response to mass shootings.
"If we're going to have a position in our society where all we offer each other is prayers, then where are we? Where are we as a society, where people die and that's the end of that story," he said.
He said he heard the gunman shoot through a glass door on the first floor. Davis, a crime and courts reporter, said he wondered if they were all going to die when he heard the gunman reload. He said The Capital's employees were just doing their jobs and had no motive to hate the gunman.
"It makes you feel powerless. It makes you feel helpless. It removes all control from every facet of your life within only a few seconds once you understand what's happening," he said.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in Maryland’s capital on Thursday afternoon, killing five staff members, injuring two others and prompting law enforcement agencies across the country to provide protection at the headquarters of media organizations.
The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody at the scene. He had a long history of conflict with The Capital Gazette, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore, suing journalists there for defamation and waging a social media campaign against them.
“This was a targeted attack on The Capital Gazette,” said William Krampf, acting chief of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. “This person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm.”
The chilling attack was covered in real time by some of the journalists who found themselves under siege. A summer intern, Anthony Messenger, tweeted out the address of the office building where the newsroom is based, saying, “please help us.” A crime reporter, Phil Davis, described how the gunman “shot through the glass door to the office” before opening fire on employees.
