ANNAPOLIS, MD – A barrage of texts, a news alert on CNN, calls from reporters and hours of waiting to hear from police or a crisis worker — and no word from her husband, Capital Gazette sports reporter John McNamara — all combined to make June 28 the end of Andrea Chamblee’s ordinary life. She didn’t know the details as reporters began calling her for statements, but her husband and four co-workers had been killed in a mass shooting at the newspaper office by a gunman accused of nursing a years-long grudge against the Capital for a story about his stalking conviction.
Chamblee wrote about the day her world ended, and her struggle to get through the days following her husband’s death, in a moving opinion piece published by The Washington Post. She describes the wait for official word on her husband’s fate.
“After seven hours of waiting, I answer another strange number. Several of John’s co-workers can be heard on the line. There is wailing: painful, wounded wailing. One voice chokes out the words: “He’s dead.” The wailing gets louder. It is my wailing,” Chamblee wrote.
She describes her fog of grief as she deals with insurance and funeral details, with taking a leave from her work at a government office, with marching in Annapolis to remember the shooting victims.
“The survivors contact me and tell me he didn’t suffer. But, they warn, never watch the security video,” she says.
Read Chamblee’s entire essay on The Washington Post website.
The Capital Gazette employees killed are:
Benefit Concert Planned
Maryland native rockers Good Charlotte will headline a benefit concert July 28 to support the Capital Gazette shooting victims’ families and survivors. City officials said the concert will also promote freedom of the press and its importance to democracy. Headliners Good Charlotte have connections to the city and come from Waldorf, Maryland. “Annapolis will always be dear to us, and we couldn’t be more proud of how the city has handled this tragedy,” said Benji and Joel Madden, band founders, in a statement. “It’s only natural for us to want to do our part for the city and the people who have given us a place in Maryland that we still call home.”
The Good Charlotte concert will begin in the afternoon with several musical performances and guest speakers coming from the world of journalism. Proceeds will be directed to the fund established for the victims and survivors and journalism scholarships. The event will take place from a stage on College Avenue with the Maryland State House in the background and the audience located on Bladen Street, extending down toward Rowe Boulevard, a city news release said.
The event will be ticketed. Information regarding tickets will be available soon.
The local fundraiser established to help the families, victims and survivors of the attack is The Capital Gazette Families Fund, which will be managed through the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County. The Michael and Jacky Ferro Family Foundation will match up to $1 million of donations, according to tronc, the parent company of The Baltimore Sun Media Group, which includes the Capital.
The fund is described this way on the foundation website: In honor of the Capital Gazette victims, their colleagues, and their families in Annapolis, MD, this fund has been established to provide immediate relief and long-term recovery support to those individuals directly and indirectly affected by the tragedy. Grants can be applied to grief and trauma counseling, medical expenses not covered by insurance, funeral expenses, and other associated expenses and services.
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Bloomberg Government reporter Madi Alexander started a GoFundMe page to help the shooting victims. The fund had received about $206,000 in donations by July 11.
“Journalists at the paper are reporting on the deaths of their own colleagues. Please give what you can to help the Capital Gazette newsroom and their journalists,” Alexander wrote. “Our hearts break for our colleagues in Annapolis and we want to do whatever we possibly can to help them pay for medical bills, funeral costs, newsroom repairs, and any other unforeseen expenses that might arise as a result of this terrible shooting.”
Jarrod Ramos, the accused gunman charged with five counts of murder after opening fire at the Capital Gazette, was apparently seeking revenge for a July 2011 article the Capital Gazette published about a criminal case against him for harassing a former high school classmate so severely she feared for her life. The article was apparently a source of anger that simmered for years.
PHOTO: Annapolis Strong banner placed outside the Capital Gazette office on Bestgate Road, by Patch Editor Elizabeth Janney.