ANNAPOLIS, Md. — E.B. “Pat” Furgurson stood just behind the police officer briefing reporters on America’s latest mass shooting Thursday evening, a voice recorder in one hand, notebook in the other, press badge around his neck.

He was doing his job, just like the dozens of other journalists who crowded around as the sun set.

But it was different for Furgurson, an award-winning reporter with Annapolis' Capital Gazette, since this story involved his newspaper and his colleagues, five of whom had been shot and killed in their own newsroom hours earlier.

"People in there were just trying to do a job for the public,” he said. “Something like this might happen in Afghanistan or Iraq or something like that, but you don't expect it to happen in a little sleepy office across from the local mall.”

“But we’re still putting out a newspaper,” he continued, emotional but defiant. “You’ll see it in the morning.”

Moments later, he was swallowed by a swarm of news cameras and reporters asking him questions, instead of the other way around.

The shooting turned the world inside out for the small newspaper and the community it serves. In the midst of a tragedy, journalists found themselves at the center of their own story.

A photojournalist who wasn’t in the office when the shooting broke out rushed back to the scene. A writer detailed the terror he felt as he listened to the gunman reloading. They shared what information they had, trying to piece together the story like everyone else, making sure they had their facts straight.

“Police saying 117 were evacuated. I reported 170 earlier. Will confirm,” reporter Chase Cook tweeted (he was right, the officer later clarified he said “one-seven-zero”).