Years before he opened fire at the Capital Gazette newsrooms, leaving five dead and two injured, staff had contacted police about the gunman’s vengeful grudge against the paper, and his disturbing threats against staff – but police never made an arrest.
Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, even posted death threats on social media against the newspaper’s editor, Tom Marquardt, and another reporter, as part of his years-long harassment campaign against the newspaper.
‘I said during that time, ‘This guy is crazy enough to come in and blow us all away,’ Marquardt told the LA Times.
Capital Gazette staff contacted the police about gunman Jarrod W. Ramos (left in most recent mugshot on Friday, and right) after he made death threats against their staff, but say he was never arrested
Capital Gazette staff contacted the police about gunman Jarrod W. Ramos after he made death threats against the editor and a journalist – but he was never arrested
Ramos had a clear vendetta against the Capital Gazette – and editor Tom Marquardt in particular (in this Facebook post, the gunman writes that Marquardt is going to journalist hell)
Sadly, that prediction was more accurate than he knew, and yesterday Ramos walked into the newsrooms in Annapolis, Maryland, and began shooting in an attack that left five dead and two injured.
Marquardt said that Ramos’ campaign of abuse began after they ran a story about his stalking case. When the 38-year-old’s angry posts and tweets took a darker turn, with him at one point wishing certain members of staff would ‘cease breathing’, the editor reported him to the police.
But, despite evidence of the death threats online, police failed to arrest the gunman.
‘We contacted police … and they went out to talk to him,’ said Marquardt, who added that Ramos had personally wished him dead on social media. ‘They reviewed all the tweets so far and again came away with the feeling that there really wasn’t enough substance there to pursue a case in court.’
On Friday, Police Chief Timothy Altomare was asked why Ramos wasn’t picked up soon if police were aware he was potentially dangerous.
‘We were aware of him,’ he told The Today Show, adding that even the death threats weren’t enough for police to make an arrest.
Ramos, who unsuccessfully sued the paper for reporting on his stalking case – posted multiple angry, disturbing tweets and social media posts sbefore he opened fire at the newsroom on Thursday
‘This is the greatest free society on earth. Conduct had to cross certain lines for us to intervene.’
Altomare said that the newspaper had contacted them just once, in 2013, over the threats but said that ‘as a shared agreement between the investigator and the Capital management at the time, they decided not to press forward with a formal investigation because they were afraid it would exacerbate the situation.’
Marquardt (right) said police told them they couldn’t arrest Ramos, adding that the newspaper was reluctant to sue him for fear it could make the situation worse
However, Marquardt said police told them they couldn’t arrest Ramos, adding that the newspaper was reluctant to sue him for fear it could make the situation worse.
‘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.’
Ramos launched his vendetta against the local, daily newspaper after the Capital, ran a story titled ‘Jarrod wants to be your friend’, in 2011, about how he had been convicted of criminally harassing a woman who had turned down his advances.
The story described how Ramos had sent the woman, a former classmate, ‘months of emails in which Ramos alternately asked for help, called her vulgar names and told her to kill herself. He emailed her company and tried to get her fired.’
Ramos was furious with the coverage, demanding it was taken down and setting up a website full of vitriol towards the newspaper, its staff and editor.
A short time later, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the Capital.
Police responded within 60 seconds to reports of an active shooter at the newsroom in the 800 block of Bestgate Road, Annapolis, at around 2.40pm on Thursday
Jarrod W. Ramos was arrested shortly after police stormed the building on Thursday afternoon. He is pictured above being led away by police in handcuffs
Ramos represented himself if the suit, which was kicked out by a judge who found no basis for defamation as the story was both true and based on public documents. Although that didn’t stop Ramos from keeping the case alive by suing lawyers, judges and ‘anybody who crossed his path and disagreed with him.’
‘During that time he continued to rant on his Facebook page to a point that we were feeling threatened physically from what he was saying,’ Marquardt said.
He also posted hundreds of tweets under the handle @EricHartleyFrnd – the name of one of the former staff reporters on the paper, Eric Thomas Hartley, who wrote the initial story.
The profile picture is a photo of Hartley, who now works at a newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia, with an anime ‘sacrifice’ symbol photoshopped onto his forehead.
The symbol, from the Japanese anime series Berserk, means that whomever is branded with it will be ‘ritualistically murdered’.
On in, Ramos posted about the case and his appeals, as well as much more disturbing tweets about the 2015 deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices in Paris and two Virginia television journalists who were killed on live television later that year.
One of those tweets targeted one of the journalists killed on Thursday, Rob Hiaasen. In another tweet, he discussed how he’d enjoy seeing the paper stop publishing, but ‘it would be nicer’ to see two journalists ‘cease breathing’.
The newspaper still put out a print edition on Friday. They tweeted out an image (above) of their front page late on Thursday night regarding the deaths of their five colleagues
Lynne Griffin pays her respects at a makeshift memorial near the Capital Gazette where 5 people were shot and killed. Griffin was a journalism student under John McNamara who was one of the people killed at the paper
Sarah Handel places flowers at a makeshift memorial near the Capital Gazette where 5 people were shot and killed
‘I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,’ Marquardt told the Capital, which published on Friday despite the tragedy. ‘I even told my wife, ‘We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.’ ‘
He added that he and other newspaper management worried about how to stop Ramos. After the police were unable to make an arrest, they conferred with their lawyers, and he considered filing a restraining order against him.
They even kept a file on Ramos for many years.
Eventually, Ramos’ case and multiple appeals were thrown out.
The woman who was harassed by Ramos told WBAL TV that she also warned an ex-police officer years ago that he would ‘be young next mass shooter’.
The woman told a WBAL TV reporter that she had become so frightened of Ramos that she had to move three times and now sleeps with a gun, adding that he is a ‘f***ing nut job’.
Ramos, who lives in Laurel, Maryland, surrendered to officers shortly after police stormed the building and had initially refused to identify himself to authorities in the aftermath of the shooting.
He has since been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and is scheduled to have a bail hearing in Annapolis later today.
Pat Furgurson, a staff reporter of the Capital Gazette, reported on the shooting (left and hugging a colleague, right)
Phil Davis, a court and crime reporter for the Gazette, confirmed that multiple people had been shot
Police called the shooting a ‘targeted attack’ on the Capital Gazette, said Ramos had entered the building ‘looking for his victims’.
The five victims were named by police as Wendi Winters, 65, Rebecca Smith, 34, Robert Hiaasen, 59, Gerald Fischman, 61, and John McNamara, 56.
Winters was the special publications editor, McNamara was a writer, Fischman was editorial page editor, Smith was a sales assistant and Hiaasen was an assistant editor and columnist.
Police confirmed that the newspaper had received ‘general threats’ sent over social media that indicated violence.
The acting police chief said at a press conference late Thursday: ”This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm.’
Ramos was reportedly under a desk when police found him after storming the building. Authorities said they recovered a shotgun from the scene, as well as what they thought to be an explosive device. Police said the device ‘was taken care of’ but didn’t elaborate.
Even though a number of the colleagues were casualties in the shooting, staff at the Capital Gazette provided rolling coverage and firsthand accounts of the tragedy throughout the evening, publishing a newspaper the next day.
Stalker killer: Jarrod W. Ramos, who shot and killed five people at the Capital Gazette in Maryland stalked a high school classmate, and she has now revealed that she warned police five years ago that he would be ‘the next mass shooter’
Journalists described crawling under desks to hide in what they said was minutes of terror as they heard the gunman’s footsteps and the repeated blasts of the shotgun as he moved about the newsroom.
Phil Davis, a court and crime reporter for the Gazette, said the lone gunman shot through the glass door of the offices and then opened fire on the newspaper employees.
‘A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead,’ he tweeted, while he said he was waiting to be interviewed by police.
‘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.
‘There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.’
Jimmy DeButts, the editor of the newspaper’s website, tweeted in the hours after the shooting that he was ‘devastated, heartbroken and numb’.
‘I’m in no position to speak, just know @capgaznews reporters & editors give all they have every day. There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays – just a passion for telling stories from our community,’ he tweeted.
‘We are there in times of tragedy. We do our best to share the stories of people, those who make our community better. Please understand, we do all this to serve our community.’
Police spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure said officers raced to the scene, arriving in 60 seconds, and took the gunman into custody without an exchange of gunfire.
About 170 people in all were evacuated from the building as a multitude of police cars and other emergency vehicles converged on the scene. People could be seen leaving the building with their hands up.
The shooting, which came amid months of verbal and online attacks on the ‘fake news media’ from politicians and others from President Donald Trump on down, prompted New York City police to immediately tighten security at news organizations in the nation’s media capital.
New York police sent counterterrorism teams to news organizations around the city in a move authorities said was a precaution, not prompted by any specific threat. Police could be seen outside The New York Times, ABC News and Fox News early in the evening.