Defiant staff at Capital Gazette publish their Friday paper hours after 'targeted attack' by gunman kills 5 of them

Skye Gould/Business Insider

• The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland put out a paper on Friday despite losing five of its staff and having several others injured in a "targeted attack" by a gunman.
• The Gazette's front page remembered the victims of the shootings and offered a composed recollection of the events while memorializing the slain staff. 
• The Gazette's staff reported on the shooting as it unfolded, but came back as determined as ever to put out the paper.
• Journalists are targeted by violence all over the world, with dozens already killed in 2018.

The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, put out a paper on Friday, just as they would any day, despite losing five of its staff and having several others injured in a "targeted attack" by a gunman.

Staff of the Gazette immediately began reporting on the details of their own attack. Employees tweeted to the outside world for help, and to inform them of the unfolding chaos at the paper. Some tweeted frightening details of witnessing the carnage.

But eventually, authorities detained the gunman. Hours after the chaos unfolded, Capital Gazette reporter Chase Cook announced there would be no slowing down the news organization: "I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow," he tweeted.

On Friday, the Gazette's front page remembered the victims of the shootings and offered a composed recollection of the events while memorializing the slain staff. 

Targeted attack against journalists 

CNN

"This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette," Anne Arundel County acting police chief William Krampf told reporters during a news conference hours after the shooting.

The Gazetted identified the suspected gunman as Jarrod Ramos, who is believed to be 38 years old and a resident of the county.

A man with the same name sued the newspaper for defamation in 2012, according to the Gazette. That case was dismissed, and the judge's decision was upheld on appeal.

"We had a long history with this guy. He was prone to making threats against me ... one of which was I 'would be better off dead,'" the Gazette's publisher/editor told ABC's Brad Mielke.

Krampf said threats to the newspaper "were sent over social media as recently as today."

Journalists often receive threats from the public in the line of work. Around the world, at least 29 journalists have been killed so far in 2018. 

The US Constitution guarantees its citizens a free press that can hold government and private institutions to account, as an essential part of a democracy. Journalists frequently come in for criticism but rarely do the attacks rise to the level of viciousness used against the Captial Gazette, and rarely is the dogged work of journalism so well encapsulated as it has been here.