Plain Dealer Staff Honor Victims Of Capital Gazette Shooting

Current and former Plain Dealer staff gathered Thursday evening to honor the five employees of the Capital Gazette newspapers shot to death in Annapolis, Maryland.

They huddled in the lobby of the Plain Dealer’s production facility to stay out of the rain, in view of the newspaper’s rows of printing machines. They held signs that said “Journalism Matters” and “We Stand With the Capital Gazette.”

“The journalists who were gunned down in their newsroom last week were human beings,” Wendy McManamon, who heads the Plain Dealer guild, said. “They were parents. They were friends. They were citizens of this country. And that’s what we’re here today to remember. That journalism matters. That there are people behind the journalism.”

Newsrooms around the country observed a moment of silence Thursday afternoon for the victims of the shooting.

“There are a lot of things, a lot of forces out there now, in the world that are, I think, trying to tear us apart,” Plain Dealer editor George Rodrigue said. “And I think it’s good that we’re standing here together today in support of the kinds of people, including our staff here, who try to hold things together.”

Loretta Geyer of Euclid said her son, Joshua Roeder, works in sales for the Capital Gazette, but left the office shortly before the gunman arrived.

“I wanted to be here to honor Wendi and Rebecca and Rob and Gerald and John,” Geyer said, naming those who lost their lives.