Five killed by gunman at Maryland newspaper
describing how Ramos was convicted of criminally harassing a woman who had turned down his advances.
Ramos accused the Capital of defamation and sued, representing himself in court, unsuccessfully. A Twitter account under his name showed hundreds of posts related to the case and its various appeals.
The profile picture on the Twitter account featured the writer of the column, and some posts alluded to other shootings of journalists, including the 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and two Virginia television journalists who were murdered on live television later that year.
“He waged a one-person attack on anything he could muster in court against the Capital,” Tom Marquardt, the newspaper’s editor and publisher until 2012, told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview.
“I said during that time, ‘This guy is crazy enough to come in and blow us all away,’” Marquart said, adding that he and other newspaper officials had fretted over how to stop Ramos’ The scene outside 888 Bestgate, where an active shooter was in the Capital Gazette Newspaper office/newsroom, with heavy police, fire and rescue presence on Thursday in Annapolis, Md.
harassment.
Marquart said police couldn’t arrest Ramos for his behavior toward the newspaper, and the paper was reluctant to sue him in court. “The theory back then was, ‘Let’s not infuriate him more than I have to . ... The more you agitate this guy, the worse it’s gonna get.’”
As he spoke to the Times, Marquart’s voice grew tense as he recalled his fear of Ramos, and how he’d felt powerless to do anything to stop the harassment.
“If it’s him, I’m gonna
feel ... responsible for this,” Marquart said. “I pray it’s not him.”
After the shooting began, a young intern at the newspaper sent out a plea on Twitter: “Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us.”
Officers responded to the offices of the newspaper within a minute of receiving a report of an active shooter on Thursday afternoon, Anne Arundel County police reported. Police said they arrested Ramos at the scene and took him in for interrogation.
The first comprehensive details about the attack then came from Capital crime reporter Phil Davis in a series of tweets after he reached safety, while waiting to be interviewed by police.
“A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead,” Davis tweeted. “Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can’t say much more and don’t want to declare anyone dead, but it’s bad.”