Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:Staffers of the Capital Gazette have put out a Friday edition, as promised, just a day after five of their colleagues were slain in the paper’s Annapolis, Md., newsroom.
The Friday headline on the paper’s front page reads, “5 shot dead at The Capital,” in big, bold, black letters, with 10 staffers on the byline. Photos of the five staffers who were killed appear across the top.
Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
Surviving journalists vowed Thursday that they wouldn’t be deterred from their journalistic mission because of the shooting.
“I can tell you this,” Gazette reporter Chase Cook tweeted after Thursday’s deadly rampage. “We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.”
Another media briefing is planned for 8 p.m. I don't know much else right now. Thank you all for the kind words.
— Chase Cook (The tiels are Poe and Stanley) (@chaseacook) June 28, 2018
After the shooting was over Thursday, Gazette employees gathered in a parking deck at the nearby Annapolis Mall, where Editor Rick Hutzell led a discussion punctuated with hugs and staggered expressions.
“We’re trying to do our job and deal with five people” who lost their lives, said reporter Pat Furgurson, whose wife and adult son were with him at a mall.
He said his colleagues were “just people trying to do their job for the public.”
“You’d think something like this might happen in Afghanistan, not in a newsroom a block away from the mall,” he said, reflecting on what appeared to be one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.
Police said the gunman, identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, explicitly targeted the newspaper.
ANNAPOLOIS NEWSROOM SHOOTING LEAVES 5 PEOPLE DEAD; SUSPECT IN CUSTODY, OFFICIALS SAY
The five Gazette staffers killed in the attack were identified as Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rebecca Smith, and Rob Hiaasen.
Winters was the special publications editor. McNamara was a writer. Fischman was editorial page editor. Smith was a sales assistant. Hiassen was an assistant editor and columnist.
Surviving members of the paper’s staff said there was no hesitation about whether to produce a Friday edition.
