ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Ron Bateman was the acting sheriff five years ago when the Capital Gazette shooting happened, a shooting that shook the very core of Annapolis.
“A lot of people think they are seeing actors reenacting what is in the trailer, they’re not. This is real footage. It's big time viewer discretion is advised. It's graphic, it’s not pretty, but it’s real,” said Bateman.
Bateman released a trailer for his upcoming documentary about the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette titled “Heroes of 888."
888 Bestgate Road. The address where the gunman, Jarrod Ramos, opened fire with a shotgun after barricading the back doors so no one could escape.
Bateman began this project over a year ago, conducting interviews and gathering footage.
“It went from a deep-dive investigation to then suddenly I started to see all of these different heroes that emerged that day, and, you know, it was civilians. You know, Wendi Winters was a huge, was the, was a huge hero that day. But there was so many other people,” said Bateman.
While Bateman is the author of several crime novels, he said he was first asked to write another novel about this shooting, but said it was important for him to go beyond a novel for the people who are still impacted by that day.
“But they feel like it’s being forgotten, and they don’t want this being forgotten,” said Bateman.
Bateman also took a different approach to the documentary, focusing on who the five victims were and what they meant to the community.
“The tragedy of the five being killed is horrendous and all five of them are to be commemorated all the time. But I wanted to bring out the positive side of it, because we have heard so many times in our world of instances like this where public safety has been scrutinized for what they did or didn’t do,” said Bateman.
One of the key takeaways from spending so much time on this project was how much this tragedy has impacted the community and the families of those who passed.
“Now that I have put myself into this pool of sadness, it just brings it all back to me that death is so final and it comes without warning all the time,” said Bateman.
Bateman expects to finish the full documentary by mid July.
He says he is working to get an outlet like Netflix, Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime, or others to pick it up.
He wants to make sure as many people see it as possible, a small way to honor the five who lost their lives.
