Capital Gazette Staffers Share Stories On Shooting Anniversary

ANNAPOLIS, MD — One year ago today, a man walked into the Capital Gazette newspaper office and opened fire, stealing the lives of five employees and scarring the survivors physically and emotionally. For the employees at the Capital Gazette, June 28 is a day they will never forget.

On June 28, the community has rallied around the family and friends of the victims as well as the survivors to remember those who did not make it home from work a year ago. They scheduled a memorial garden dedication, a forum on gun safety, a concert and a candlelight remembrance.

Journalists have done what they do best, put pen to paper so to speak, to share what happened that terrible day when time seemed to stand still in the Capital Gazette office, gunshots ringing out and fear trapping them in place.

Chris Kaltenbach, Capital Gazette reporter, wrote that the fear still gnaws away at the surviving staffers. They sometimes struggle with being around strangers, but share an unforgettable bond that no one really wanted.

They pulled themselves together and that very next day, published the daily paper. They slowly put one foot in front of the other and kept working, trying to push the thoughts of the terror they experienced out of their minds.

They attended their murdered co-workers' funerals: editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, 61; assistant editor and columnist Rob Hiaasen, 59; sports writer and editor John McNamara, 56; sales assistant Rebecca Smith, 34; and community correspondent and head of special publications Wendi Winters, 65. They watched their friends and co-workers' desks sit empty.

They survived the shooting that other journalists have written about around the country. Capital Gazette reporter E.B. Fergurson III wrote: "Today is a day my colleagues and I have been dreading," in a column published June 28.

"It’s a year since evil blasted through the front door of this newspaper’s offices and set about to silence us by killing everyone in sight. Evil failed. But it took the lives of five of our colleagues — Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman and Rebecca Smith. We mourn them again today in simple ceremonies, moments of silence, and fresh rounds of tears," he wrote.

Rachael Pacella survived the shooting and also retold in a column the horror that unfolded around her one year ago. She had been assigned to cover Induction Day at the Naval Academy. In the office, she heard gun blasts and ran away from the sounds toward a back door. She tripped and slammed her face into the door frame, because the door had been barricaded from the outside so no one could escape the horror that unfolded in the newsroom. So Pacella instead squeezed herself between two file cabinets, trying to stifle her whimpering of fear and pain.

Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell wrote that his friends died because they chose to be journalists. Winters charged at the gunman hoping to stop him, "becoming the first journalist I’ve ever heard of who died defending a newsroom," Hutzell wrote in his column.

The five victims of the shooting have stories captured in print and online for people to remember them by. The people they've befriended on the job, the stories they've covered, none of it will fade away. They will no longer walk into the newsroom, but their lives will never be forgotten.