- A reporter for the Capital Gazette, a newspaper based in Annapolis, Maryland, sent heartbreaking tweets about an active shooter situation at the paper’s office on Thursday.
- The reporter, Phil Davis, sent the tweets as he waited to be interviewed by police.
- “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Davis said.
A reporter for the Capital Gazette, a newspaper based in Annapolis, Maryland, sent heartbreaking tweets about an active shooter situation at the paper’s office on Thursday.
Phil Davis, a courts and crime reporter for the Gazette, began tweeting while he was waiting to be interviewed by police.
“A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead,” Davis tweeted.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” he added.
In a subsequent interview, Davis said, "I'm a police reporter. I write about this stuff - not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death - all the time. But as much as I'm going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don't know until you're there and you feel helpless."
Davis said the newsroom was like a "war zone" during the shooting. The shooter reportedly stopped firing as Davis and his colleagues continued to hide under their desks, but he doesn't know why.
"I don't know why. I don't know why he stopped," Davis said.
According to initial reports, there were multiple fatalities as a result of the shooting.
Read Davis's harrowing account of what occurred via the tweets below:
I will tweet what I can while I wait to be interviewed by police.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
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 (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Ok, I was not tweeting from under my desk. I was already safe when I started tweeting
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Davis was not the only employee of the Gazette tweeting about the shooting. Anthony Messenger, an intern at the newspaper, appeared to tweet amid the active shooter situation and pleaded for someone to help the newsroom.
Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us
— Anthony Messenger (@anthonydmess) June 28, 2018
This incident in Annapolis comes not long after a mass shooting at Great Mills High School in southern Maryland.