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He also described the raw and \"terrifying\" moments of the shooting.

There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload

— Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

Paul Gillespie, a staff photographer for the paper, said he was \"lucky to be alive.\"

I am okay physically, so far, mentally I am a mess. I was inside. I am lucky to be alive. Please pray for my coworkers who were not as lucky as I was. We lost some truly great people today. I am in shock trying to process this horrible situation. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.

— Paul W Gillespie (@pwgphoto) June 28, 2018

Jimmy DeButts, an editor for the paper, told Twitter followers that his newsroom was full of hardworking people who faced the challenging reality of working in print news today.

“Please understand, we do all this to serve our community,” he said.

Devastated & heartbroken. Numb. Please stop asking for information/interviews. I’m in no position to speak, just know @capgaznews reporters & editors give all they have every day. There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays - just a passion for telling stories from our communty.

— Jimmy DeButts (@jd3217) June 28, 2018

We are there in times of tragedy. We do our best to share the stories of people, those who make our community better. Please understand, we do all this to serve our community.

— Jimmy DeButts (@jd3217) June 28, 2018

Another reporter, Chase Cook, defiantly tweeted that the mass shooting wouldn't stop the paper from publishing Friday.

Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

As the news reverberated nationwide, reporters at organizations around the country took to Twitter to describe their passion and pain for colleagues at the Capital Gazette.

Julie Davis, a White House reporter for the New York Times, described working with Rob Hiassen, 59, who was killed in the shooting.

\"Author
CarlHiaasen via Facebook
Author Carl Hiaasen poses with his brother, Rob, left, who was killed in the newspaper shooting in Annapolis, Md., June 28, 2018.
>

Hiassen was an assistant editor at the Capital Gazette and formerly a feature writer at the Baltimore Sun, where Davis said she met him.

This is devastating. Rob was a mentor and an inspiration when I started at the Sun and knew nobody and nothing. A beautiful writer and a kind soul who was so, so funny. I still think of him when I read a certain kind of quirky, surprising story. Always will. https://t.co/gwlpPn06aM

— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) June 29, 2018

A reporter for the Boston Globe described local newspapers as home to “some of the country’s finest journalists” working for “little pay [and] no glory.”

Local newspapers don’t win tons of Pulitzers or cover flashy stories. They cover the zoning board, the planning board, the town budget. They’re often overlooked. But they’re where some of the country’s finest journalists work for little pay & no glory. Please remember them today.

— Maria Cramer (@GlobeMCramer) June 28, 2018

Journalists in local newsrooms servicing towns and counties around the same size as the Capital Gazette reacted, too.

In a 10-tweet thread, an intern at the Hartford Courant in Connecticut said the tragedy in Annapolis weighed heavily on the newsroom five states north, and she wanted to explain why.

Reading about the shooting at the Capital Gazette is gutting. I start crying every time not just because the loss of life is tragic but also because it makes me feel like no one understands what journalists do and who we are. So I'm going to try to explain: (1/?)

— Nyssa Kruse (@NyssaKruse) June 29, 2018

“We're behind you in line at the grocery store, beside you in the pew, in front of you in the stands at little league games. We're just normal people, and the news matters to us as much as you,” Nyssa Kruse wrote.

This pursuit is somewhat altruistic but not entirely. We love this damn job. I get to meet people on the best days of their lives and the worst days of their lives, and I essentially get paid to be curious and empathetic.

— Nyssa Kruse (@NyssaKruse) June 29, 2018

As reaction grew, the Capital Gazette and the journalists who survived the shooting continued to report the news.

One editor at the Los Angeles Times shared a photo of two journalists — Capital Gazette photographer Joshua McKerrow and reporter Chase Cook — working on the story they'd lived hours earlier.

I was pulling photos from the shooting today and found this one: two of the @capgaznews journalists working on tomorrow's paper in a parking lot while they waited to hear whether their colleagues were alive or dead. Journalists, man. I have tears in my eyes. pic.twitter.com/KjfZ0fqSd2

— Jessica Roy ?? (@jessica_roy) June 29, 2018

And by the end of the day, the Capital Gazette shared Friday’s front page — and the five stories of those who were lost.

Today, the Capital Gazette lost five members of our family. Stories on all five bright, wonderful lives will be included in the following tweets.

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
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