Newsrooms Hold Moment Of Silence For Capital Gazette Shooting Victims
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) -- One week after five Capital Gazette employees were killed in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history, silence fell in Annapolis and in newsrooms across the world.
Support continues to pour in for the paper and the community it serves.
"There's a lot of sorrow, a lot of prayer, a lot of support," Sonya Beall of Annapolis said.
At 2:33pm Thursday, the exact moment when gunshots tore through the newsroom of the daily newspaper, silence settled over Annapolis City Hall.
The Baltimore Sun Media Group observed a moment of silence at its offices in Annapolis, Baltimore and Carroll County.
The American Society of News Editors and The Associated Press Media Editors asked newsrooms around the globe to join them.
Cheryl Starr and her son, Sam, came to pay their respects.
"We live right next door, so it just hit us hard, because it's so close to home — way too close to home — and it's tragic. Everyone in the community knew these people, and it just shouldn't happen like that," she said.
Strangers joined hands in prayer at a makeshift memorial, officers bowed their heads at the Anne Arundel County Police Department and all went quiet at the temporary offices of the grieving Capital Gazette newspaper.
Police say the suspect, Jarrod Ramos, had a long-standing vendetta against the paper and barged through the door with a shotgun. In minutes police say he ened the lives of four journalists and a sales assistant.
In Louisville, Kentucky, the newsroom at the Courier Journal fell silent in memory of the victims after executive editor Joel Christopher read the names of the dead.
"They paid a high price for doing what we do," he said.
In the newsroom of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, the vigil was accompanied by the names of the five victims being read aloud, according to reporter Jane Harper.
"It was incredibly quiet," said Harper, 55, who worked at Annapolis paper from 1987 to 1991. "Not a cellphone rang. Not a desk phone. Not a single sound."
About 100 people gathered in the headquarters of The Associated Press in New York to observe a moment of silence, circling around a desk where coverage of national and international stories is planned.
Jimmie Gates, a reporter who participated in a moment of silence at the Clarion Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, said being a journalist is like being in a small fraternity or sorority, and an injury to any one member hurts all.
"It was just like a family member being taken away," Gates said.
The remembrance also touched journalism schools. No classes were in session at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, but more than a dozen faculty members and students bowed their heads in memory of the slain newspaper workers.
One of the victims, assistant managing editor Rob Hiaasen, was an adjunct lecturer who taught his first class at the school in the spring semester. Two other victims, editorial page editor Gerald Fischman and John McNamara, a writer and copy editor, earned their bachelor's degrees from the university more than three decades ago.
RELATED: How You Can Help Capital Gazette Shooting Victims And Their Families
Special publications editor Wendi Winters and Rebecca Smith, a recently hired sales assistant, also were killed. Deborah Nelson, an associate professor at Maryland, said the killings will be on the minds of people getting into journalism.
"Students will be traumatized by the loss and they'll also be wondering about the issue of safety, which is something we haven't had to deal with much in the U.S.," she said.
On Wednesday night, a week of heartache turned to cheers as explosive applause for the paper's staff lit up the Annapolis 4th of July parade.
"We lost a big chunk of our newsroom and our hearts. And we can't fill that hole, but these guys help make us feel a little bit better," Capital Gazette photographer Paul Gillespie said.
Seven days later, support continues to lift up Annapolis.
"There are people all over the state of Maryland and all over the world, that are reeling from this, that are standing with Annapolis," said Rev. Gail Fiedler of Pikesville.
Moments of reflection from those the Capital Gazette covers to the countless news outlets who have been covering it.
Gillespie tweeted that he hung the banner from the 4th of July parade in the office, making it feel a little more like home.
Ramos, a 38-year-old Maryland man, has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the shooting. He is being held without bail.
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