The digital editor of Campus Current was the subject of the final article a Capital Gazette journalist wrote before she died in a mass shooting in June.   

On June 28, 38-year old Maryland resident Jarrod Ramos allegedly fired shots through a glass door and opened fire on the Capital Gazette office in Annapolis, killing five people.  

One of the victims was Wendi Winters, a 65-year old community correspondent, recognized in Annapolis for her Teen of the Week column, which captured the lives of teenagers in the community. 

Some of the teens Winters wrote about attended Broadneck High School, which was home to Campus Current’s Digital Editor Sarah Noble from 2014 to 2018. 

Noble said she knew Winters before they met for an interview because they went to the same synagogue. Noble said Winters interviewed many of her friends for Teen of the Week. 

Noble said she recalls her June 6 Teen of the Week interview with Winters as“very casual.” 

“She talked about journalism exactly way I would talk about it,” Noble said. ””It’s amazing to cover stories and it’s a fantastic opportunity that will always serve you well in life.” 

The night of the shooting, Noble was sitting at her friend’s kitchen table, joking around about school and summer vacation, when she got a text saying Winters was one of the victims of the shooting at the Gazette.  

“I just kept saying to my friends, ‘Holy sh*t, I just talked to her. …  I just talked to her. … I just talked on the phone with her. I was just emailing her,” Noble said. 

Noble said she hopes to write for a major publication someday, and “now I have to think about the safety of it.”  

Noble described herself as “incredibly angry” to find out that Ramos publically tweeted threatening comments about the Gazette shortly before the shooting and nobody did anything.” 

Noble and other AACC students reported their dismay over gun violence and mass shootings.  

“I don’t want to say [to students], ‘Don’t be afraid, chase after your dreams, keep pushing forward,’” Noble said. ”I want to say ‘be conscious of your workplace.”  

Mark Davis, a second-year architecture student, said gun violence is minimal in London, where he is from. 

“[The shooting] brings gun crime close to home,” he said. “Anyone can be affected, and it’s not just restricted to people involved in bad things.”  

Maia Eichelberger, a second-year paramedic student, said  

What is a drive-by? 

“It was a crazy … eye opening day.” “I hear about [mass shootings] in the paper, but it’s not usually local,” Eichelberger said.