Quietly clutching candles or hoisting #AnnapolisStrong signs, more than 1,000 people streamed through Maryland's capital, remembering five people slain in a newspaper office not just as gatekeepers of the news but as a crucial piece of their tight-knit community.
Friends, former co-workers and people who felt connected to the victims took part in a strikingly silent candlelit march Friday night to honor the employees of The Capital newspaper who were killed a day earlier in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.
Melissa Wilson, who came to the vigil with her husband, Benjamin, their 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, said many Annapolis residents have "one degree of separation" from at least one victim.
"The people who made our newspaper are people we felt we knew, even if we had never met them before," Benjamin Wilson said.
Melissa Wilson's employer has offices in the same building as the newspaper and her co-workers were there when a gunman methodically blasted his way through the newsroom with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.
Jarrod W. Ramos has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Authorities say he has a longtime grudge against the paper, suing it in 2012 after it ran an article about him pleading guilty to harassing a woman. He also sent a barrage of menacing tweets that led to an investigation five years ago.
A detective concluded he was no threat, and the paper didn't want to press charges for fear of "putting a stick in a beehive."
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But residents focused on the victims: assistant managing editor Rob Hiaasen, editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, special projects editor Wendi Winters, reporter John McNamara and sales assistant Rebecca Smith.
David Marsters, who worked at the newspaper from 2008 to 2016 and knew four of the slain employees, said the outpouring of grief over their deaths is a testament to the special bond the newspaper has with its readers.
"They were great people who did amazing work in the community," he said.
He took part in the march that ended at a waterfront harbor called "City Dock," where laughter and the noise of playing children usually carries across the restaurants, bars and shops. But not on Friday.
"For it to be so still and so somber, especially on a Friday night, it's startling," Kit O'Neill said, describing Annapolis as "a small town with a big heart."
"And the Gazette is its mighty newspaper," she added.
Earlier, dozens of mourners gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis to pay tribute to congregation member Wendi Winters and the other victims.
The Rev. Fred Muir's voice cracked as he described the mounting dread he felt Thursday as it became clear Winters didn't survive. He described her as a beloved "pillar of her community."
"Everybody has a Wendi Winters story. She was a force to be reckoned with," he said.
Muir said the shock and grief have reverberated across Annapolis, a city he described as a small town where many people knew somebody who worked at the newspaper.
The 65-year-old Winters was a special publications editor and a mother of four.
Some of those attending the vigil at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis on Friday gasped when the Rev. John Crestwell noted that Winters had participated in a training session at the church three weeks ago on how to respond to an active shooter.
Crestwell said he was sure that Winters "did not cower in fear." He said she "died a hero and probably saved more lives."
