The woman who was stalked by the gunman who shot dead five people at a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, says had warned police five years ago that he would be ‘the next mass shooter’.
Jarrod W. Ramos’ harassment of the woman, one of his former high school classmates, had been the subject of a 2011 article in the Capital Gazette, which would later see him sue the newspaper.
After the unsuccessful lawsuit, and years of posting threats against the newspaper and its staff on social media, the 38-year-old opened fire in their newsroom on Thursday afternoon.
Ramos’ initial stalking of his former classmate had begun with a Facebook message of thanks for being ‘the only person ever to say hello or be nice to him in school’, and escalated into a harassment campaign which saw her forced to change her name and leave the state.
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’.
Stalker killer: Jarrod W. Ramos, who shot and killed five people at the Capital Gazette in Maryland stalked a high school classmate for years, and she has now revealed that she warned police five years ago that he would be ‘the next mass shooter’
Ramos had unsuccessfully sued the newspaper and one of its former reporters in 2013 for defamation. A Twitter profile under his name, using the name of a former Gazette reporter in the handle and the reporter’s picture includes tweets criticizing the Gazette and details of the length legal dispute
The 2011 Capital Gazette article about Ramos harassment of the woman was headlined ‘Jarrod wants to be your friend’, and was published after he pleaded guilty to criminal harassment.
The article, quoted in its entirity in the 2013 defamation lawsuit, described how Ramos had sent the woman numerous emails spanning several months, calling her vulgar names and telling her to kill herself.
The Capital reported that Ramos also contacted the woman’s job; she was suspended by a supervisor the same month and then let go several months later.
‘When she blocked him from seeing her Facebook page, he found things she wrote on other people’s pages and taunted her with it, attaching screenshots of the postings to some of his emails.
‘She called police, and for months he stopped. But then he started again, nastier than ever. All this without having seen her in person since high school.’
Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, is the gunman who shot dead five people and injured two others at Maryland’s Capital Gazette newsroom on Thursday. He is pictured in a 2013 mugshot
In the years that followed the publication of the article, Ramos sued the newspaper, the reporter who initially wrote about the case, a judge and the woman who testified against him.
His defamation suit was thrown out on appeal in 2015 because Ramos failed to prove that what the newspaper had printed was untrue.
Ramos would go on to routinely harass journalists from the Capital Gazette on Twitter in scores of profanity laced posts.
The Twitter account uses the handle @EricHardleyFrnd – the name of one of the former staff reporters on the paper, Eric Thomas Hartley – and the profile picture is a photo of Mr Hartley with an anime ‘sacrifice’ symbol photoshopped onto his forehead.
The symbol, from the Japanese anime series Berserk, means that whomever is branded with it is ‘ritualistically murdered’.
One of Ramos’ 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’.
Other tweets from his account referenced previous journalist shootings, including the 2015 terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris
Ramo, who lives in Laurel, Maryland, was arrested shortly after police stormed the building and had initially refused to identify himself to authorities in the aftermath of the shooting.
Annapolis shooter Jarrod W. Ramos’ stalking of his ex-classmate begun with a Facebook message and escalated into harassment which saw her forced to change her name and leave the state
He repeatedly tweeted at the newspaper from his Twitter account, which used the handle @EricHartleyFrnd – the Capital Gazette reporter who wrote the initial story
Ramos would often tweet threats against Mr Hartley, referring to him as ‘Jabba TH’, such as here in 2015
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
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
A law enforcement official said he had to be identified using facial recognition technology after purposely damaging his fingerprints in what investigators believe was an attempt to prevent them from quickly identifying him. Acting police chief William Krampf later denied this.
Police said it was a ‘targeted attack’ on the Capital Gazette and that he 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 said the newspaper had received threats on social media prior to the deadly shooting. Investigators said they were trying to determine if the threats were linked to the suspect.
Ramos had unsuccessfully sued the newspaper and one of its former reporters in 2013 for defamation. A Twitter profile under his name includes frequent tweets about the newspaper and its staff.
Tom Marquardt, retired publisher and top editor at the paper, told The Capital Gazette on Thursday that he had long been concerned about Ramos’ history of escalating social media attacks against the newspaper and its journalists. He called police about Ramos in 2013 and considered filing a restraining order against him.
‘I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,’ Marquardt said. ‘I even told my wife, ‘We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.’ ‘
Police confirmed that the newspaper had received ‘general threats’ sent over social media on Thursday 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 newspaper provided rolling coverage and firsthand accounts of the tragedy throughout the evening.
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.’
Describing the moment as like being in ‘a war zone’, Davis said he and his colleagues were hiding under their desks, listening to the gunman firing and reloading until there was sudden silence.
‘I don’t know why he stopped,’ he said.
Davis added in an interview, with the surrounding press outside the newspaper’s headquarters, that while he wrote about mass shootings as part of his crime beat, it was another thing to experience one first hand.
‘I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff – not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death – all the time,’ he said. ‘But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.’
Police were preparing to search Ramos’ home (second building from left) in Laurel, Maryland on Thursday night following the deadly shooting
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 keep doing more with less. We find ways to cover high school sports, breaking news, tax hikes, school budgets & local entertainment.
‘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.
‘We try to expose corruption. We fight to get access to public records & bring to light the inner workings of government despite major hurdles put in our way. The reporters & editors put their all into finding the truth. That is our mission. Will always be.’
Another reporter Chase Cook, who wasn’t inside the building at the time, tweeted that while they didn’t have much information right now: ‘I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.’
An intern with the Capital Gazette, Anthony Messenger, tweeted at 2.43pm there was an ‘active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us.’
Pat Furgurson, a staff reporter of the Capital Gazette, reported on the shooting with fellow members of the media on Thursday after his colleagues were killed
Phil Davis, a court and crime reporter for the Gazette, confirmed that multiple people had been shot
Reporter Pat Furgurson embraces a Capital Gazette colleague outside their office building on Thursday afternoon
Anthony Messenger (left) an intern at the Gazette tweeted calling for help
Reporter Selene San Felice told the CNN broadcast outlet she was at her desk when she heard the shooting and ran with some others to a back door only to find it locked. She said she saw a colleague steps away as he was shot but didn’t get a view of the shooter as she sought to hide.
‘I heard footsteps a couple of times… I was breathing really loud and was trying not to, but I couldn’t be quiet,’ she added. Having gone to school in Florida, she recalled accounts of a gunman’s June 2016 mass shooting attack on Orlando’s gay nightclub Pulse and how terrified people crouching inside had texted loved ones. Dozens were killed there.
Messenger, tweeted there was an ‘active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us’
‘And there I was sitting under a desk, texting my parents and telling them I loved them,’ she said.
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.
Authorities said the suspect was undergoing questioning by detectives.
‘The shooter has not been very forthcoming, so we don’t have any information yet on motive,’ Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh said. ‘To my knowledge, there was no verbal aspect to the incident where he declared his motives or anything else, so at this point we just don’t know.’
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.
Police have also responded to check the Baltimore Sun newsrooms in the wake of the shooting
Jimmy DeButts, the editor of the newspaper’s website, tweeted in the hours after the shooting that he was ‘devastated, heartbroken and numb’
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
President Trump said in a tweet that he was briefed on the shooting at The Capital Gazette before departing Wisconsin.
He said: ‘My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families’ as he thanked ‘all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene.’
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said: ‘There is no room for violence, and we stick by that. Violence is never tolerated in any form, no matter whom it is against.’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen added in a tweet: ‘My heart is with the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims as we learn more about this terrible situation. We must unite to end the violence.’
The Gazette is owned by the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which is owned by Tronc, inc. Police have also responded to check the Baltimore Sun newsrooms in the wake of the shooting.
The Capital Gazette is a daily newspaper that serves the city of Annapolis, Maryland. It’s sister newspaper, The Maryland Gazette, is one of the oldest American newspapers.
Founded in 1884, it has a circulation of more than 30,000 daily and 35,000 for the Sunday edition.
