By Ayana Archie and Dalila-Johari Paul, CNN
Two writers from the Capital Gazette said “thoughts and prayers” aren’t enough after a gunman attacked their newsroom, killing five people and injuring two others.
Capital Gazette staff writer Selene San Felice, who covered the Pulse nightclub shooting when she was a student in Florida, said she remembered being upset hearing about the victims texting their families. Two years later, she was sitting under a desk texting her parents and telling them that she loved them, she said.
“I’m going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers,” San Felice told Anderson Cooper on “AC360” Thursday night. “Our whole lives have been shattered, and so thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a f— about them if there’s nothing else.”
“I have heard that President Trump sent his prayers,” she said. “I’m not trying to make this political, but we need more than prayers.”
“I appreciate the prayers. I was praying the entire time I was under that desk. I want your prayers, but I want something else,” she added.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had earlier offered their condolences on Twitter.
“Prior to departing Wisconsin, I was briefed on the shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland,” the President wrote. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”
“I send thoughts & prayers for comfort to the friends, family & colleagues of those killed & injured,” the first lady wrote.
San Felice said she was working at her desk when she heard a “loud bang.” She wasn’t sure at first what was happening, she said, but she picked up her purse to leave. She said she didn’t see the shooter, but she saw her coworker, John McNamara, being shot and killed.
Phil Davis, the Capital Gazette’s crime and court reporter, began tweeting about the incident after he was safely away from the building.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” he wrote.
Davis told Cooper he was also praying during the attack, but “if we’re going to have a position in our society where all we can offer each other is prayers, then where are we?”
