{"id":168222,"date":"2018-06-28T22:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T02:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=168222"},"modified":"2018-06-29T00:02:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T04:02:39","slug":"papers-staff-share-alarm-resolve-online-amid-fatal-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/28\/papers-staff-share-alarm-resolve-online-amid-fatal-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper’s staff share alarm, resolve online amid fatal attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cThere<\/a>
\u201cThere is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,\u201d Davis wrote. (Photo<\/a> by Maryland GovPics\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BALTIMORE \u2014 Amid a devastating Thursday attack that killed five people at a historic Maryland\u00a0newspaper, journalists at the paper took to social media to seek help and report on the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath, they identified who was safe and voiced their first waves of grief. They also used social media to explain journalism’s truth-telling mission, trying to demystify what journalists do in an era when they’re often attacked as spreading \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the Thursday massacre began with a chilling tweet sent at 2:43 p.m. by an intern at The Capital Gazette in\u00a0Annapolis, Maryland’s capital. Anthony Messenger wrote: \u201cActive shooter 888 Bestgate please help us.\u201d Amid the chaos, Messenger had the bearings to share the newsroom’s street address.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, as he waited to be interviewed by investigators, the\u00a0Annapolis\u00a0newspaper’s crime and courts reporter tweeted that a \u201csingle shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.\u201d The reporter, Phil Davis, revealed that the gunman \u201cshot through the glass door to the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a subsequent tweet, Davis said he heard the sound of the gunman reloading what authorities later said was a shotgun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,\u201d Davis wrote.<\/p>\n

Photojournalist PaulW. Gillespie, who was in the newsroom when the attack began, wrote on Twitter that he was untouched physically but was \u201ca mess\u201d mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pray for my coworkers who were not as lucky as I was. We lost some truly great people today. I am in shock trying to process this horrible situation,\u201d Gillespie tweeted.<\/p>\n

At a time when journalists are frequently denigrated, Capital Gazette editor Jimmy DeButts took to Twitter after the attack to tell the public that the\u00a0newspaper’s staff are guided daily by a \u201cpassion for telling stories from our community.\u201d They do the work without any expectation of \u201cbig paydays,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In a series of tweets, DeButts tried to explain what hardworking journalists actually do day after day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to expose corruption. We fight to get access to public records & bring to light the inner workings of government despite major hurdles put in our way,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cThe reporters & editors put their all into finding the truth. That is our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

As investigators tried to piece together what happened, photojournalist Josh McKerrow shared his unshakeable resolve to keep The Capital Gazette publishing for his\u00a0Annapolis\u00a0community, tweeting: \u201cThere will be a Capital Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Cook, a reporter, was more blunt. He tweeted: \u201cI can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2014 Amid a devastating Thursday attack that killed five people at a historic Maryland\u00a0newspaper, journalists at the paper took …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":168223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,17],"tags":[52291,52292],"class_list":["post-168222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news-w","tag-maryland-newspaper","tag-the-capital-gazette","mauthors-david-mcfadden","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}