In this Oct. 9, 2014 photo, Associated Press reporter Kathy Gannon answers questions during an interview in New York. This was Gannon’s first interview since she and AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus were attacked on April 4, by a gunman in Khost Province in eastern Afghanistan as they prepared to cover the presidential election the next day. Niedringhaus was killed in the attack and Gannon is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
In her first interview since being wounded in Afghanistan in April, Associated Press correspondent Kathy Gannon spoke with David Crary about the shooting, the death of photographer Anja Niedringhaus and the choices they made before that. “Honestly, I’ve thought it through so many times — I know neither Anja or I would have done anything differently,” she said.
The two were shot at by an Afghan police officer.
Niedringhaus, 48, died instantly of her wounds. Gannon, 61, was hit with six bullets that ripped through her left arm, right hand and left shoulder, shattering her shoulder blade.
“I looked down and my left hand was separated from my wrist,” Gannon said. “I remember saying, ‘Oh my God, this time we’re finished.’ … One minute we were sitting in the car laughing, and the next, our shoulders were pressed hard against each other as if one was trying to hold the other up. The shooting ended. I looked toward Anja. I didn’t know.”
Gannon, who has had reconstruction surgery for her left arm, told Crary that when she recovers, she’ll go back to Afghanistan and continue reporting.
“Neither Anja or I would ever accept to be forced out by some crazy gunman,” Gannon said.
In this photo taken in October 2012, Associated Press reporter Kathy Gannon, second from left, and photographer Anja Niedringhaus pose for a photo with Afghan police recruits at the main police training academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gannon spoke Oct. 9, 2014, during her first interview since she and Niedringhaus were attacked on April 4, 2014, by a gunman in Khost Province in eastern Afghanistan as they prepared to cover the presidential election the next day. Niedringhaus was killed in the attack and Gannon is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. (AP Photo)
Previously: Anja Niedringhaus: Covering war ‘is the essence of journalism’
New award named for AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus
AP’s Kathy Gannon and the late Anja Niedringhaus given National Press Club awards
