A female reporter shot dead at a US newsroom last month rushed at the gunman, likely saving the lives of several of her workmates, it has been revealed.

The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where the shooting occurred, reported over the weekend that Wendi Winters grabbed a rubbish bin and a recycling bin and ran at the shooter.

Janel Cooley, a sales associate for the local newspaper, said Winters yelled something like “No! You stop that!” or “You get out of here!” at the gunman.

“She may have distracted him enough that he forgot about me, because I definitely stood up and was looking at the door,” Ms Cooley told The Capital Gazette.

“I’m sure he wasn’t expecting … anyone to charge him.”

Other witnesses confirmed Winters probably saved their lives. Eleven people were in the office during the shooting. Five were killed, including Winters.

Winters, a special publications editor, was memorialised in a service on Saturday (US time) at her church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis.

Winters was honoured at the memorial by her four children, Winters, Phoenix, Montana and Summer Leigh.

Family of Wendi Winters arriving for Memorial Service @WTOP pic.twitter.com/OmXn8W6A6H

— Melissa Howell (@Mhowell003) July 7, 2018

Winters Geimer spoke of her mother’s hatred of guns.

“When I was little, we were not allowed to have toy guns,” she said at the memorial service, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“It didn’t matter if it was a squirt gun or a pop gun, it was banned from our house.”

During an interview after the service, Winters Geimer said her mother had confronted a would-be robber when she was a university student in Richmond, Virginia.

“The man pulled out a knife,” she told The Baltimore Sun.

“She grabbed him from behind, picked him up and shook him and held him until police arrived.”

Weeks earlier, Winters had participated in active shooter training at the same church where her memorial was held, The Capital Gazette reported. At the meeting, a police officer reportedly told the trainees: “Run if you can. Hide if you can hide. Fight only if you must.”

Winters’ son, Phoenix Geimer, told the newspaper his mother’s courageous actions during the shooting “sounds like her”.

“She’s got four kids. She’s not going to take it from anyone,” Mr Geimer said.

The suspect in the shooting, 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, is accused of walking into The Capital Gazette newsroom on June 28 and shooting dead five employees with a shotgun.

Ramos had unsuccessfully sued the newspaper for defamation and sent threatening letters to the office. He was arrested alive in the newsroom minutes after he opened fire.

The day of the shooting, Capital Gazette staff worked in an Annapolis  shopping mall car park to get out the next edition of the paper.