
Capital Gazette Journalist Saved Colleagues By Charging At Gunman
Maryland Capital Gazette journalist Wendi Winters was a hero as she attempted to fight off an armed gunman with only a trash can. Wendi was one of the first to see gunman Jarrod Ramos when he smashed open the glass door of their office on June 28. She charged at him and tried to fight him with a trash can. Survivors said they heard her shouting: 'No! You stop that!' and 'Get out of here!'. In response, Ramos fired on her and she was killed at the site. Winters, 65, a mother-of-four and well-respected member of the news team, had learned self-defense tactics weeks earlier when participating in active shooter training at her church. There, she was told by police to follow a run, hide, fight plan if she was confronted by a shooter - run if you can, hide if you can, fight if you must. After shooting her dead, Ramos continued the shooting rampage, killing four more. Several survivors of the shooting credited Winters with saving their lives. 'She may have distracted him enough that he forgot about me, because I definitely stood up and was looking at the door, and I'm sure he wasn't expecting anyone to charge him,' Janel Cooley said. She hit the ground when she saw him come in and hid beneath her desk as Winters confronted him. She thinks that it distracted him enough that he forgot she was there. He bypassed her to go looking for others further back in the newsroom and she was able to escape. Photographer Paul Gillespie was in the office when he heard the commotion at the front and shots being fired. He hid as did reporters Rachael Pacella, Phil Davis and intern Anthony Messenger. 'I think that Wendi doing what she did served as enough of a distraction that maybe he didn’t see us. I absolutely think that Wendi Winters saved my life,' Pacella said. The woman's son Phoenix Geimer said he was not surprised by her attempt to save the others in the office, particularly those who were younger than her. 'It sounds like her. She's got four kids, she's not going to take it from anyone,' he said. Editor Rob Hiaasen, editorial editor Gerald Fischman, reporter John McNamara and sales assistant Rebecca Smith were also killed. Rammos remains in custody on murder charges. He had a longstanding grudge against the newspaper which had reported on him stalking a woman.