Memorial held for 5 slain Capital Gazette employees

A memorial to the five Capital Gazette employees, who died in a shooting in the newspaper's newsroom last year, was unveiled Friday, June, 28, 2019, at a park in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Brian Witte) A memorial to the five Capital Gazette employees, who died in a shooting in the newspaper's newsroom last year, was unveiled Friday, June, 28, 2019, at a park in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

By Associated Press June 28, 2019 3 min read

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Capital Gazette memorial

Steve Schuh, county executive of Anne Arundel County, holds a copy of The Capital Gazette near the scene of a shooting at the newspaper's office, Friday, June 29, 2018, in Annapolis, Md. A man armed with smoke grenades and a shotgun attacked journalists in the building Thursday, killing several people before police quickly stormed the building and arrested him, police and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FILE - In this June 29, 2018, file photo, mourners stand in silence during a vigil in response to a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom, in Annapolis, Md. At a time when journalists are being branded “the enemy of the people,” staff members at the Capital Gazette newspaper are feeling renewed appreciation in their community, a year after a gunman went on a newsroom rampage that left five of their colleagues dead. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

In this June 14, 2019, photo, Selene San Felice, a journalist with the Capital Gazette, shows a tattoo in Annapolis, Md., she recently had made on her arm with five flowers on an ink pen in memory of five colleagues who were killed in last year’s attack at the newsroom. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Chase Cook, right, a reporter for the Capital Gazette newspaper, sits with Rick Hutzell, the editor of the newspaper, during a ceremony where a memorial was unveiled, Friday, June, 28, 2019, at a park in Annapolis, Md., for the five Capital Gazette employees who died in a shooting in the newspaper's newsroom last year. Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, left, and U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, second from left, listen. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Andrea Chamblee, the widow of John McNamara, talks to a reporter before a ceremony where a memorial was unveiled, Friday, June, 28, 2019, at a park in Annapolis, Md., for the five Capital Gazette employees who died in a shooting in the newspaper's newsroom last year. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Janel Cooley, an advertising representative for the Capital Gazette newspaper who was injured in last year's shooting at the newsroom, stands with others who survived the attack, including Phil Davis, far right, Rachael Pacella and Selene San Felice, left, during a memorial at a park in Annapolis, Md., on Friday, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Capital reporters Pat Furgurson and Chase Cook say their goodbyes at a parking lot across the street from their workplace where five of their colleagues were killed in a shooting Thursday, June 28.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Journalists honored the five Capital Gazette employees who were shot to death in their newsroom last year by unveiling a plaque Friday with the names of the dead in a garden next to five rosebushes.

The plaque in the waterside park acknowledges Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Wendi Winters and Rebecca Smith as “our cherished colleagues.”

“This community is very lucky,” said Rick Hutzell, the newspaper’s editor. “It has what a lot of communities have lost and that is a newsroom. A newsroom is a room full of people who turn up every day to celebrate our successes to point out what is wrong and to ask what could be better. That is what journalism is about, so it is extremely fitting that this is where this garden is … it’s a place where people come for a quiet moment to think about things.”

Hutzell spoke of all five of his slain colleagues. He remembered that Hiaasen used to come to the park to think about his work, and he said the garden was a fitting place for people to remember his colleagues.

“Come here and think about what these five lives meant,” Hutzell said. “I am far richer for having known them, and I am far poorer for having lost them.”