Massacre doesn’t stop next edition

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Less than a day after five of their colleagues were killed in the newsroom, staffers of the Capital Gazette put out Friday's edition of the Annapolis newspaper, just as it had been published since 1727.

The bold headline was simple: "5 Shot dead at The Capital." Above the words: photos of the five deceased newspaper employees.

That front page, written by grieving employees, made good on a promise that Chase Cook, a Capital Gazette reporter, tweeted in the hours after the shooting.

"I can tell you this: we are putting out a damned newspaper tomorrow."

He later told The Baltimore Sun: "I don't know what else to do except this." This, being journalism. The paper's opinion section also published a haunting tribute to the victims — most of the page reserved for opinions and editorials was white space.

"Today, we are speechless," went the small column in the middle of the page.

On Thursday, with their newsroom an off-limits crime scene, journalistshuddled under a covered parking deck of the Annapolis Mall. Editor Rick Hutzell called a few of his journalists over to talk, a discussion punctuated with hugs and stunned expressions.

"We're trying to do our job and deal with five people" who lost their lives, said reporter Pat Furgurson, whose wife and adult son were with him at the mall.

Furgurson's pickup truck became a makeshift office. He said his colleagues were "just people trying to do their job for the public."

The staff has been offered office space in the area.

High school sports editor Bob Hough said he and a colleague worked on the sports section from his home Thursday evening. Photographer Josh McKerrow edited photos on a laptop in the garage deck.

"It's what our instinct was — to go back to work," McKerrow said. "It's what our colleagues would have done."