• Two Capital Gazette staff writers, Selene San Felice and Phil Davis, gave a phone interview Thursday night on CNN after surviving a shooting in their newsroom earlier that day.
  • Speaking about a tweeted condolence from President Donald Trump, San Felice said “thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a f— about them if there’s nothing else.”
  • A gunman killed five in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday afternoon, acting on what the police say was a personal vendetta against one of its papers.

Two reporters from the Capital Gazette newspaper chain were interviewed on CNN on Thursday night and responded to condolences after a shooting in their newsroom earlier that day.

“I heard President Trump sent his prayers,” the staff writer Selene San Felice told the host Anderson Cooper in a phone interview. “I’m not trying to make this political, but we need more than prayers.”

Authorities said five people were killed and several others were “gravely injured” in the company’s Annapolis, Maryland, newsroom after a gunman opened fire, acting on what the police said was a personal vendetta against one of its papers.

San Felice, who said she covered the Pulse nightclub shootings as a student journalist in Florida, described appreciating prayers from well-wishers but wanting more.

"I was praying the entire time I was under that desk," she said. "I want your prayers, but I want something else."

Phil Davis, a reporter who was tweeting from under his desk in the newsroom during the attack, said he agreed with San Felice.

"If we're at a position in our society where all we can offer each other are prayers, where are we?" Davis said. "Where are we as a society when people die, and that's the end of that story?"

San Felice continued: "I don't know what I want right now, but I'm going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers."

"Our whole lives have been shattered," San Felice said. "Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn't give a f--- about them if there's nothing else."

President Donald Trump, who has previously referred to the media as the "enemy of the people," tweeted condolences Thursday afternoon to the victims and their families.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also tweeted in support of the journalists and their families, condemning the attack "on innocent journalists doing their job."

The Capital Gazette published its newspaper The Capital as normal Friday after reporters covered the shooting from a nearby parking garage. The issue's front page features the five journalists who were killed Thursday.

Hear more of the reporters' comments below: