Capital Gazette staff describe horror of Maryland shooting as attack rattles newsrooms across US

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Amid a devastating attack that killed five people at a historic Maryland newspaper on Thursday, journalists at the paper took to social media to seek help and report on the fatal shooting.

In the immediate aftermath, they identified who was safe and voiced their first waves of devastation.

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 "fake news."

News of the massacre began with a chilling tweet sent at 2:43 p.m. by Anthony Messenger, a summer intern at The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland’s capital. Amid the chaos, Messenger had the bearings to share the newsroom’s street address.

Later in the day, as he waited to be interviewed by investigators, the Annapolis newspaper’s crime and courts reporter tweeted that a "single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead." The reporter, Phil Davis, revealed that the gunman "shot through the glass door to the office."

In a subsequent tweet, Davis said he heard the sound of the gunman reloading what authorities later said was a shotgun.

Photojournalist Paul W. Gillespie, who was in the newsroom when the attack began, wrote on Twitter that he was untouched physically but was "a mess" mentally.

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 newspaper’s staff are guided daily by a "passion for telling stories from our community." They do the work without any expectation of "big paydays," he wrote.

In a series of tweets, DeButts tried to explain what hardworking journalists actually do day after day.

As investigators tried to piece together what happened, photojournalist Josh McKerrow shared his unshakeable resolve to keep The Capital Gazette publishing for his Annapolis community, tweeting: "There will be a Capital Friday."

Chase Cook, a reporter, was more blunt. He tweeted: "I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow."

Their deadline had been pushed back to 9:30 pm.

In the shade of a car park in Annapolis, Chase was working from his smartphone – from which he could access the newspaper’s editorial system.

"We’re going to have a paper," said the young man, who has worked since 2013 for The Capital.

"I don’t know what else to do except this," he said. "We’re just doing our job."

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Authorities say they do not yet know the motive of the gunman but it has rattled other newsrooms across the United States, which have long cultivated open-door ties with their communities as a business model.

Capital Gazette shooting: Everything we know about newspaper shooting in Maryland

"Obviously it’s always a concern because we write stories that make people angry," said Staci Matlock, editor of the Taos News weekly newspaper, in Taos, New Mexico.

"And given the rhetoric in the last two years about fake news, and about the role of newspapers and other media, it’s not surprising that perhaps people take it to another level."

About two hours after the shooting, a small newsroom in Ogden, Utah received a telephone call from a man asking about the ideological bent of the newspaper.

"There was no specific threat made by this person, but he did go off on the liberal media and fake news and suggested that liberals deserve to have violence done against them," said Kyle Hansen, news editor of the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

As a candidate in 2016 and after his election, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the press, referring to several major news organizations as "fake news" and calling a group that included the New York Times, CNN and CBS "the enemy of the American people."