Photo courtesy of NPR.
Summary: Jarrod Ramos was charged with murdering five staff members of the Capital Gazette.
On Thursday, a disgruntled man entered the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland and opened fire. He killed five staffers and injured two others, according to Buzzfeed.
On Friday, the suspect, Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was charged with five counts of first-degree murder. He will be held in jail without bail.
Ramos, who has a history of sending threatening messages, allegedly killed Wendi Winters, an award-winning community news reporter; Robert Hiaasen, an editor; Gerald Fischman, an editorial writer; Rebecca Smith, a sales assistant; and John McNamara, who worked at the paper in numerous positions over 20 years.
Holding a shotgun, Ramos allegedly entered the newspaper’s building on Thursday afternoon and walked through the lower level, looking for victims. Anne Arundel County Acting Police Chief Bill Krampf said that Ramos was looking to “attack.”
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” Krampf said. “This person was prepared today to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm.”
Ramos had barricaded the back entrance to block escape as he went on his shooting rampage, and law enforcement said when they arrived on the scene, no shots were exchanged.
Despite being armed and having murdered people inside, Ramos was taken into custody peacefully. He has not been cooperating with the police since his arrest.
Police officials said they searched Ramos’ home and found evidence that he had been planning to harm the local newspaper. About one year ago, he legally purchased a 12-gauge pump action shotgun which he used on Thursday.
“The fellow was there to kill as many people as he could,” Timothy Altomare, Anne Arundel County police chief said.
Ramos’ problems with the Capital Gazette dates back to at least 2012 when he sued the newspaper for defamation. The paper published a column written by Eric Hartley which documented how Ramos had found an old classmate on Facebook and proceeded to harass her.
Ramos’ defamation lawsuit was not successful as he could not prove any harm from the piece. He appealed the case but the original decision was upheld.
A year before filing the lawsuit, Ramos created a Twitter account in which he used to harass Hartley, the newspaper, and a former editor. The former editor, Tom Marquardt, said that he had contacted the Anne Arundel County police because they feared physical violence but nothing was done about it.
Ramos’ neighbors described him to Buzzfeed News as a “hermit.”
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