Motorists traveling one of Annapolis’ busiest thoroughfares now will be reminded of one of America’s most precious tenets and how fragile it can be: The truth, and the right to tell it.

The truth in Annapolis is that seven years ago a man who didn’t like something the local paper had written about him years before armed himself with a shotgun and blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom.

Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters died on June 28, 2018.

Their names have been memorialized since 2021 near the city’s waterfront with the Guardians of the First Amendment Memorial. But some leaders, feeling that wasn’t enough, recently petitioned the Maryland Transportation Commission to dedicate Rowe Boulevard to their legacy.

Officials unveiled highway markers Monday honoring what they call the “Capital Gazette Five.”

The dedication featured remembrances of the late newspaper staffers as well as vivid recollections of when people learned of the city’s first mass shooting. The testimonials underscored a local news organization’s role in a community and the lasting impacts of gun violence in America.

There was also a political undertone at a time when President Donald Trump, in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, has threatened retribution against people and organizations that hold and publish views he disagrees with.

Carl Snowden, convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders of Anne Arundel County, which spearheaded the highway dedication, remembered being in a meeting with then-Mayor Gavin Buckley when a city staffer came and whispered in the Annapolis’ mayor’s ear the unimaginable: There had been a shooting at the Capital Gazette. Five were dead.

It was around that time that Trump, in his first term as president, had declared that the press was “the enemy of the people.”

Calling the current political climate a “crossroads,” Snowden explained what he wanted people to think about as they pass the highway marker, with Maryland’s historic Statehouse dome visible in their windshields or rearview mirrors.

“The media is not the enemies of the people,” Snowden said. “What the media is, is the Fourth Estate.”

Winters Leigh Larca, Wendi Winters’ oldest child, echoed Snowden’s comments in an interview.

“The truth, they say it will set you free,” Larca said. “That it is a shield from llibel and perjury. But some people can’t stand to hear the truth. They can’t stand to read it. And they don’t want to see it in print. That is not the kind of place that I want my son to grow up in, the kind of place with shrinking freedoms and a denial of the press because people don’t like what they say.”

Larca gave birth to her 5-year-old son, Orion, about two years after her mother was killed while charging the shooter with her trash and recycling bins.

Orion can look at pictures of his red-haired grandmother and, when he’s old enough, read articles about her. But it’s really through others’ memories that he learns about her.

“These remembrances, some of these stories about his grandmother, these are going to be his only opportunities to hear them,” said Larca, with Orion tugging on her leg. “My memory is not perfect. Neither are my siblings’. He’s been denied an opportunity to know his grandmother personally.”

Winters, 65, was prolific, with features about exceptional teens and otherworldly homes.

Fischman, 61, authored sharp editorials and penned romantic poems for his wife.

An editor, Hiaasen, 59, relished mentoring young journalists when he wasn’t doting on his wife and kids.

McNamara, 56, was a passionate sportswriter who took on other assignments as the news organization shrunk and counted down the days until he could retire with his wife.

And Smith, 34, had recently started as a sales assistant, but developed a reputation for cheering others up, despite battling endometriosis.

The chair of the Maryland Transportation Commission, Justin Towles, grew up in Anne Arundel County and remembered the Capital Gazette always being on a table at his house.

“To me,” he said, “it was our connection to the community.”

He said the commission struggled over the request to put signage of Rowe Boulevard in memory of the shooting. Maryland doesn’t dedicate roads to events, he said, but to people.

“We are not today recognizing a tragedy,” said Towles, later adding: “It was not this tragedy that made them Marylanders of significance, it was the lives they lived.”

He was personally shaken by the mass killing because he and Smith went to school together and he knew McNamara.

McNamara’s widow, Andrea Chamblee, said in an interview that she wanted passersby to realize “it’s still dangerous to tell the truth.”

Describing herself as “so grateful” for the highway marker, she said McNamara “would be humbled and kind of flabbergasted by this.”

A blast of buckshot whizzed by Capital Gazette photographer Paul Gillespie’s head as he escaped the newsroom. Now, he’s the last journalist who survived the shooting still working for the paper.

He told The Banner he’ll remember his friends and their shared mission as he passes the marker along with about 34,000 motorists every day.

“We were just doing our thing that day, keeping our family, friends and neighbors informed,” Gillespie said.

The photojournalist said he believed it was critical to continue fighting for freedom of speech, press and assembly, in part so his friends’ death wasn’t in vain.

“The Capital Five,” Gillespie said, “it should be a music group, not martyrs for the First Amendment.”