Five killed in U.S. newsroom shooting
Suspect is said to have had a longstanding feud with Maryland newspaper
ANNAPOLIS, MD.— A man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in Maryland’s capital on Thursday afternoon, killing five staff members, injuring two others and prompting law enforcement agencies across the country to provide protection at the headquarters of media organizations.
A lone suspect, a Maryland resident in his late 30s, was taken into custody at the scene and was being questioned Thursday night. The authorities said they were investigating whether the suspect had sent a threat over social media to the Capital Gazette, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said acting Chief William Krampf of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. “This person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm.”
The alleged shooter was identified in a bulletin emailed to Maryland law enforcement of- ficials as Jarrod Ramos, 38, of Laurel, Maryland. Ramos seemed to carry a grudge for years against the newspaper after he was the subject of a column describing how he harassed a former classmate from Arundel High School online, first through Facebook and then through emails. Ramos pleaded guilty in July 2011 to harassment. In a column written by Eric Hartley several days later, the victim described how Ramos had stalked her online and perhaps caused her to lose her job.
The chilling attack was covered in real time by some of the journalists who found them- selves under siege. A crime reporter, Phil Davis, described how the gunman “shot through the glass door to the office” before opening fire.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Davis wrote.
For a country that has grown numb to mass shootings, this was a new front. Schools have become a frequent target, with college students on down to kindergartners falling victim. A movie theatre was shot up. Churches, too.
But this was a rare attack on a news organization, one of the oldest in the U.S., which dates its roots to the 1700s and boasts on its website that it once fought the stamp tax that helped give rise to the American Revolution.
The gunman was silent as he stalked the newsroom, stopping once to reload as journalists huddled under their desks, Davis said by telephone. Once the police arrived, staff members put their hands in the air and shouted, “We’re not him,” Davis recalled. The gunman was hiding under a desk as the police moved in. He did not exchange gunfire with officers when he was taken in.
“He didn’t have enough bullets for us,” Davis said. “It was terrifying to know he didn’t have enough bullets to kill everyone in that office, and had to get more.”
In a telephone interview on Thursday, the writer Carl Hiaasen confirmed that his brother, Rob Hiaasen, 59, had been one of those killed in the newsroom.
President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he had been briefed on Thursday’s shooting. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” he said. His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tweeted later: “Strongly condemn the … violent attack on innocent journalists doing their job is an attack on every American.”
The New York Police Department said its decision to deploy officers to news organizations in Manhattan was not based on any specific threat, “but rather out of an abundance of caution until we learn more about the suspect and motives behind the Maryland shooting.” The department described such deployments as “a standard practice to shift resources strategically during active shooter or terrorist events.”
Shortly before 6 p.m., at least three helicopters were still circling, and lines of silent police cars, with lights flashing, blocked off the main roads leading up to the newsroom at 888 Bestgate Road. Yellow police tape flapped in the wind, keeping people and journalists away from the area.
Even as the authorities continued to pore over the newsroom for clues, the Capital Gazette announced Thursday that it would be publishing an edition Friday.