Shooting suspect had threatened newspaper
Jarrod Ramos ordered held without bail on five counts of murder.
The man accused of killing five Capital Gazette staff had threatened the newspaper in 2013 but then “went dark,” police said. Until Thursday.
Shortly before Jarrod Ramos blasted out the glass doors of the newsroom near Annapolis, Maryland at about 3 p.m., he sent another threat on social media, police said, and then unleashed his rampage, shooting with a legally purchased 12-gauge pump-action shotgun until he finally laid it down and hid under a desk as police arrived.
The news organization and its lawyer had reported the May 2013 threats and spoke with a detective who investigated. The newspaper decided not to pursue criminal charges because it might “exacerbate” the situation, Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare said Friday during a news conference. The threats came amid a lawsuit Ramos filed accusing the paper of defaming him through a column describing his guilty plea to harassing a woman over social media. He lost the defamation case.
On Friday, a judge ordered Ramos of Laurel to remain detained and ordered him held without bail on five counts of murder in a court appearance where Ramos appeared via a video feed from a detention center.
At the bond hearing, Anne Arun-
del County State’s Attorney Wes Adams said Ramos barricaded the back exit of the newsroom so people could not escape. Adams called Ramos an “overwhelming threat and danger to our community.”
The prosecutor said Ramos worked his way through the office, shooting victims along the way. “There was one victim that attempted to escape through the back door but was shot,” he told the judge. He also used smoke grenades, police said.
Four journalists and a sales associate for the Capital Gazette died and two people suffered what police called minor injuries.
Ramos appeared in the video feed in court in a blue, v-neck prison uniform. He said nothing and was expressionless. He stared at the camera.
Ramos is unemployed and lives alone, according to testimony presented at the hearing.
Police said that after a search of his Laurel, Maryland apartment Thursday, they found evidence, that they did not detail, showing he had planned the attack.
“We can’t fathom why that person chose to do this,” Altomare said.
The shootings are believed to be the deadliest attack on journalists in the United States in decades.
Ramos, police said, acted alone and drove a rental car to the newspaper office. No shots were exchanged as officers arrived and within about a minute of being in the newsroom, police said, found him beneath the desk.
According to Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh, the social media message Ramos allegedly posted shortly before the attack said “something like ‘leave me alone’ or ‘leave me the hell alone.’ ”
He said it was not clear whether that message from Ramos was directed at the Capital Gazette or “at the world.”
On Friday, the opinion page of the Capital Gazette read, “Today we are speechless.”
It went on, “This page is intentionally left blank today to commemorate victims of Thursday’s shooting at our office.”
The victims were Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters. Fischman and Hiaasen were editors, McNamara was a reporter, Smith was a sales assistant and Winters worked for special publications, according to the newspaper’s website.
The two people injured were likely hit by broken glass, according to officials.
Schuh said Friday that Ramos had a “long-standing grievance” with the newspaper and had filed lawsuits against the paper and “lost them all.”
Ramos lost a defamation case against the paper in 2015 over a 2011 column he contended defamed him. The column provided an account of Ramos’ guilty plea to criminal harassment of a woman over social media.
Ramos had not been cooperative with investigators and “hasn’t said much the whole time,” Altomare said Friday. He had no wallet or other identification on him at the time, the charging documents filed against him state.
Officials said Ramos was identified using a facial recognition system after he was in custody.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan commended the quick police response. On Friday, he ordered Maryland flags to be flown at half-staff.
“It’s a tragic situation, but there were some very brave people who came in and kept it from being worse, and the response time was incredible,” Hogan said.
The Capital Gazette, Annapolis’s daily newspaper, is widely read in Maryland’s capital and in surrounding Anne Arundel County. The paper promotes itself as one of the oldest publishers in the country, with roots dating to the Maryland Gazette in 1727.
The paper has 31 people on its editorial staff and had a daily circulation of about 29,000 and a Sunday circulation of 34,000 as of 2014.
Ramos graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Capitol College, now Capitol Technology University, in Laurel.