Former Rubbing the Rock writer Anthony Messenger survives Maryland shooting

On Thursday afternoon, this country had to react to another mass shooting and one of our former colleagues at Rubbing the Rock had to react quickly to save his life. 

Anthony Messenger, an intern at The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland where five people were killed by Jarrod Ramos, 38, on Thursday, was a writer at Rubbing the Rock for almost two years.

At 2:43 p.m., yesterday, Messenger’s tweet, “Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us,” was seen by many people, as he hoped that he wouldn’t die.

I personally didn’t see Messenger’s tweet until last night and after immediately calling him to see if he was okay. I got him to answer a few questions about a scene that is becoming all too familiar and commonplace to the citizens of this country.

First thing, what made you send the tweet?

Anthony Messenger: I actually didn’t send the tweet. Selene San Felice, my co-worker sent the tweet. She texted her mom, texted her dad, asked for my phone and then she tweets that. She gives me my phone back and it gets silent. And finally, we hear sirens. After I got out of the building, I saw my phone blowing up. I thought it was my family, but it’s Twitter and I see the tweet on CNN. I’m like what the heck is this.

So she tweeted on your account and you didn’t know it?

Messenger: Yes. I was sitting there and it was still frantic because shots were still firing off. I looked over, and I saw that she was tweeting. But I wasn’t necessarily sure what it was.

She had the presence of mind to do it. At the time, I didn’t know if it would help anything and the next thing I know, I’m being reached out to by CNN, Fox, Good Morning America, etc.

I know you haven’t been at the Gazette long but had you heard anything about Ramos prior to today.

Messenger: I think it was some sort of prior situation. I have no idea why or what prompted him to do it. Honestly, I can’t remember hearing about anything that could make me believe that something like this could happen.

Let’s go back. So you’re sitting there working. Where were you relative to his entry into the building?

Messenger: He came in the glass front doors. If you come in those doors, you pass the receptionist desk on the right, and make a right turn down the middle of the office. My desk is kind of far back, so I was able to get up and go to the back door. It was locked. I don’t know if he locked it or barricaded it, because that door is never locked. At that point, I knew it may have been planned and it was more serious, than I originally thought. Selene and I crawled under a desk, huddled, and held on and prayed that we wouldn’t get shot.

Were you able to recognize the first noise as a gunshot? 

Messenger: I heard what sounded like a firework to me. I did hear glass shattering at the tail end. Then when I looked back, I saw the glass was shattered. It takes a lot to shatter a door of that size. I remembered thinking, I don’t know about this. Then I heard another pop. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I wasn’t going to sit around, wait and watch. So I just grabbed my keys and the door was locked. I got down and hid under a desk.

Did you see him or got a glimpse of him?

Messenger: I didn’t see him, not once.

About how long did the shooting last?

Messenger: I’ll say, maximum about three minutes. It felt like an eternity. It was very short, but from my adrenaline rush, it felt like forever. He came in, shut the door and started firing at people in the office.

Do you think the shots were random or did he target certain people?

Messenger: I’m not sure, but looking back on it. All the people that are deceased are either editors or older writers. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that he had specific targets. I don’t want to speculate on that. It seemed like the people that got shot were kind of clustered in the same areas.

He shot two people on the left side of the room and one person in the hallway. I saw one man get hit by a bullet and ultimately die. I was no more than six yards away from him. He was under the desk diagonally from me. He got hit in his right torso. That was it.

What is the time span from the first shot and the police arriving on the scene?

Messenger: So the cops got there very fast. I remember hearing the sirens four or five minutes into it. I’m not sure where the suspect was at the time. The building was kind of empty or at least, to my knowledge. I did hear that the suspect was hiding under one of the desks.

Did the police engage him at any point or did he just stop shooting? What happened after their entry?

Messenger: He didn’t engage them. I don’t believe that there were any shots fired from him to the police or vice versa. They showed up and cleared the room. Anyone who needed medical attention got the appropriate attention and they were making sure there were no immediate threats. Me, Selene and others yelled to the police, hey, we are back here and they got us out of the building.

Where were the majority of your co-workers when the police came into the building and what happened once you were out of the building?

Messenger: I’ll be honest. I don’t remember. I was in the building the majority of the time. I think they apprehended him, shortly, after me and my co-workers left the building. When we got outside, there were a lot of people already there and they continued to evacuate the building. It was orderly. There was heavy law enforcement presence, with ambulances and swat. I’ve never seen so many police in my life. We walked with our hands in the air across the street and then the detectives de-briefed everybody.

We at FanSided and Rubbing the Rock are all saddened by this tragedy but relieved that our former colleague was able to escape unharmed. Donations can be made to help support the victims’ families at this GoFundMe account, set up by a Washington D.C. journalist and verified by GoFundMe, per CNN.