Staff shot at desks
Lone gunman launches killing spree at US newspaper office
Journalists at a newspaper in the US city of Annapolis, Maryland, have told of their terror as they hid under their desks while a gunman opened fire, killing five of their colleagues and injuring three others.
JOURNALISTS at a newspaper in the US city of Annapolis, Maryland, have told of their terror as they hid under their desks while a gunman opened fire, killing five of their colleagues and injuring three others.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Capital Gazette crime reporter Phil Davis said.
Describing the scene in the newsroom as being “like a war zone”, Mr Davis said the suspect “shot through the glass door to the office” and then walked through the newsroom, targeting individuals. Police were on the scene within minutes and apprehended the suspect – Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, who had a long-running feud with the newspaper – according to police sources.
Found cowering under a desk, Ramos threw down his shotgun and surrendered.
Anne Arundel County acting police chief William Krampf told a press conference “this was a targeted attack” and the gunman “looked for his victims”.
Investigators were yesterday searching Ramos’s home. A Twitter account in his name referenced the deadly 2015 shooting at Charlie
Hebdo newspaper. It had been dormant for more than two years until yesterday, just before the shooting, when a message was posted: “F**k you, leave me alone.”
Ramos reportedly filed a defamation lawsuit against the Capital Gazette and a columnist in 2012 over a story that covered a criminal harassment case against him.
The attack was the deadliest involving journalists in the US in decades. Among those reported to have been killed was veteran columnist and editor Rob Hiaasen, 59.