The next morning's edition of The Capital went to print on time. Five of the newspaper's colleagues were dead, the office at 888 Bestgate Road looked like a war zone, and the survivors had spent the evening being interviewed by detectives. None of that stopped the staff of the Capital Gazette from doing what community journalists do: they published the paper. The opinion page ran blank except for a small note -- "Today we are speechless" -- a silence that said more than any editorial could. The June 28, 2018 attack on the newsroom near Annapolis, Maryland, was the deadliest assault on journalists in modern American history. It claimed the lives of five people who had devoted their careers to covering their community. What followed was not just grief but defiance -- a small newspaper's insistence that the work would continue, that the press would not be silenced.
Rob Hiaasen, 59, was the assistant editor and weekend columnist whose generous mentoring shaped younger reporters across the newsroom. John McNamara, 56, was a sports reporter whose coverage was a dream job he never tired of. Gerald Fischman was the editorial page editor known for his clever, quirky voice. Rebecca Smith, 34, was a sales assistant who had just started working at Capital Gazette Communications. Wendi Winters, 65, was a community beat reporter and special publication editor whose coverage of local events, schools, and organizations made her a familiar and beloved figure throughout Anne Arundel County. When the gunman entered the newsroom, Winters charged at him -- an act of courage that gave her colleagues precious seconds to escape. She was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in December 2020. These were not famous journalists at a national outlet. They were the people who covered school board meetings, high school sports, and community events -- the foundation of local news.
The attack was not random. In 2011, The Capital had published an article about a man's guilty plea for criminal harassment of a former high school acquaintance. The subject of that article, enraged by the coverage, filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper in 2012. The case was dismissed in 2015 when a judge ruled that the reporting was based on publicly available court records and the plaintiff had produced no evidence of inaccuracy. Threatening letters followed -- to the newspaper's attorney, to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, and to the judge who had ruled against him. A former FBI senior profiler would later describe the man as "an injustice collector," someone who goes through life accumulating grievances, real or imagined. Despite the pattern of threats, no preventive legal action was taken. On the afternoon of June 28, 2018, the man arrived at the Bestgate Road office with a shotgun and smoke grenades, barricaded an exit to prevent escape, and opened fire. Police arrived within 60 seconds of dispatch.
Reporters for The Capital began covering the shooting as it happened -- from inside the newsroom and while racing back from assignments in the field. In the hours after the attack, while 170 people were being evacuated from the building to a reunification center at the nearby Westfield Annapolis shopping center, the surviving journalists made a decision that would come to define their legacy: they would publish the next day's paper. Working from wherever they could, the staff assembled the edition. The blank opinion page became one of the most powerful editorial statements in American journalism. On July 1, 2018, The Capital published an editorial signed by its entire staff of reporters and editors, thanking the citizens of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County for their support. The paper's determination drew national attention. In December 2018, Time magazine selected the Capital Gazette staff as part of its Person of the Year -- "The Guardians," a collection of journalists worldwide recognized for their commitment to truth.
On April 15, 2019, The Capital received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation honoring "the journalists, staff and editorial board of the Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom." The citation included a $100,000 bequest to further the newspaper's journalistic mission. The community's response matched the newsroom's resolve. A candlelight vigil filled the streets of Annapolis on June 29, the day after the shooting. On July 28, 2018, the city held Annapolis Rising, a benefit concert featuring Good Charlotte and Less Than Jake, with proceeds supporting the victims' families and journalism scholarships. On the first anniversary, a memorial garden was dedicated at Acton Cove Park. And on June 28, 2021 -- the third anniversary -- a memorial entitled Guardians of the First Amendment was unveiled in Newman Park, consisting of five pillars and a stone engraved with the text of the First Amendment. Five pillars for five journalists who died doing the most essential work of a free society: telling their community the truth.
The Capital Gazette offices at the time of the shooting were located at 888 Bestgate Road in Parole, Maryland, at approximately 38.994N, 76.544W, an unincorporated area of Anne Arundel County just west of Annapolis. The Guardians of the First Amendment memorial is in Newman Park in downtown Annapolis, near the Maryland State House dome -- a prominent landmark visible from the air at the center of Annapolis's distinctive radial street plan. Annapolis sits where the Severn River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Nearest airport is Lee Airport (KANS), approximately 3nm south of the city. Baltimore-Washington International Airport (KBWI) is roughly 20nm northwest. The Naval Academy campus along the Annapolis waterfront provides a strong visual reference. Best viewed at 2,000-3,000 feet AGL.