LETTER: Reaching out with love from the Capital Gazette family

My name is Danielle Ohl. I am a journalist currently working for Spotlight PA in Pennsylvania, but in my heart, I will always be a member of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. I worked for The Capital in 2018, when a man who held a grudge against our paper and our work killed five of my colleagues.

I read news of Jeff German’s death and felt immediate, overwhelming sorrow because my Capital Gazette colleagues and I are part of a small and terrible club that you’ve now unwillingly joined. To lose a colleague because of the work they’ve done, because of the work we are all proud to do, is an unspeakable horror. But if I’ve learned anything in the four years since I lost my colleagues, it’s that they live on in the journalism we continue to pursue.

I know the Las Vegas Review-Journal will continue, just as we at The Capital did. I also know your reporters and staff now face some of the most difficult work of their lives, to cover the murder of their own colleague.

The Capital Gazette family is behind you. If you ever need advice or solace or camaraderie, we are here for you and your staff. We are currently gathering donations to the Three Square Food Bank to give in Jeff’s honor.

We’d also like to send a card to the newsroom. Please let me know what address to use.

We send love and strength on behalf of dozens of Capital Gazette alumni as well as Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Wendi Winters and Rebecca Smith.

Press on,

Danielle