5 die in shooting at Maryland newspaper
Police: Suspect has long history of conflict with newspaper
The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody at the scene. He had a long history of conflict with the Capital Gazette, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore.
AANNAPOLIS, Md. man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in Maryland’s capital Thursday afternoon, killing five staff members, wounding two others and prompting law enforcement agencies across the country to provide protection at the headquarters of media organizations.
The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody at the scene. He had a long history of conflict with the Capital Gazette, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore, suing journalists there for defamation and waging a social media campaign against them.
“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 chilling attack was covered in real time by some of the journalists who found themselves under siege. A summer intern, Anthony Messenger, tweeted out the address of the office building where the newsroom is based, saying “please help us.” 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 theater was shot up. Churches, too. But this was a rare attack on a news organization, one of the oldest in America, 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 in fear under their desks, Davis said in a telephone interview. 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.
After his arrest, Ramos refused to cooperate with the authorities or provide his name. He was identified using facial recognition technology, said a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
In July 2012, Ramos filed a defamation lawsuit in Maryland’s Prince George’s County Circuit Court against Capital Gazette Communications, its then editor and publisher, and a former reporter, claiming that his reputation had been damaged after the newspaper published a story the prior year about Ramos’ guilty plea in a harassment case. Three months later, he filed a fuller complaint alleging invasion of privacy. The lawsuit was later dismissed with prejudice by Judge Maureen M. Lamasney after a March 2013 hearing, in which she asked Ramos to identify anything that was falsely reported in the July 2011 article and to cite examples about how he had been harmed. He was unable to do so, according to a partial transcript of the hearing published in an appellate court decision two years later.
Ramos represented himself and, according to the appellate decision that later affirmed the dismissal, showed no understanding of defamation law.
Late Thursday, the dead were identified as Gerald Fischman, 61, the newsroom’s editorial page editor; Rob Hiaasen, 59, an editor and features columnist; John McNamara, 56, a sports reporter and editor for the local weekly papers; Wendi Winters, 65, a local news reporter and community columnist; and Rebecca Smith, a sales assistant.
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 spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tweeted later: “Strongly condemn the evil act of senseless violence in Annapolis, MD. A violent attack on innocent journalists doing their job is an attack on every American.”
Even as the authorities continued to pore over the newsroom for clues, the Capital Gazette announced Thursday it would publish an issue Friday.
Shortly after 9 p.m., several tired reporters and a photographer from the Capital Gazette were filing stories and photographs from their laptops, set up in the back of a silver pickup in the parking lot of the Westfield Annapolis Mall, across the street from their newsroom.
Joshua McKerrow, a photographer, said he was going to pick his daughter up for her birthday when he was called about the shooting. He rushed back. He had a hard time finishing sentences.
“Our newspaper is one of the oldest newspapers in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s a real newspaper and like every newspaper, it is a family.” He began to cry. Then he added:
“We will be here tomorrow. We are not going anywhere.”