(Newser) – On this night exactly 40 years ago, Mark David Chapman fatally shot John Lennon outside the Dakota apartment building where Lennon lived. Two journalists who reported on the events in 1980 reflect on the anniversary:

The first? WLIR's Steve North writes in the Daily Beast that he believes he was the first person to publicly broadcast confirmation of Lennon's death. Shortly before midnight, he was speaking to a local police sergeant, who told him, "Well, they're about to make the announcement, so I guess it's OK to tell you now that it was Lennon, and that he's dead." North broadcast the update. "After the words left my mouth, I looked at the stunned face of my colleague, then realized that I literally could not speak," he recalls. "I think in that choking, adrenaline-filled moment, the enormity of what had just happened not only to Lennon, but to every member of my generation, suddenly dawned on me."