ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A month after a gunman burst into the Capital Gazette newsroom killing five people, family members of the victims helped kick off the daylong “Annapolis Rising” benefit concert.
The concert was a benefit for family members of the Capital Gazette shooting. It was also intended to salute a free press and first responders.
“We’re doing this event to bring people together and to show that’s not going to crush us; that we are going to keep the fight up,” said Mayor Gavin Buckley.
Good Charlotte, a band that got its start in the area, headlined the event, along with other performers. In between performances, speakers talked about the five people who were killed and spoke about the importance of a free press.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Sen. Chris Van Hollen helped open the event. They reminded the crowd that Maryland lawmakers in Congress have proposed one of the shooting victims, reporter Wendi Winters, be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her heroic actions that day.
“What she did was incredible: to run at someone armed with a gun and to try to take him down,” said Winters Geimer, daughter of Wendi Winters. Winters, along with Robert Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Gerald Fischman and John McNamara were killed when shooter Jarrod Ramos burst in the newsroom.
“My mom was a brave woman,” she said.
Buckley promised the concert would be just the start of the city showing its support to victims’ families and first responders.
“What would be sad for me would be if we forget, so there are going to be a lot more things like this. There are other events going on throughout the city in the next few months,” Buckley said.
“I’m going to make sure this is an annual event that remembers those five people that we lost,” he said.
