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U.S. NEWS Saturday 30 June 2018

Police called suspect in newsroom rampage no threat in 2013

Continued from Front out as groundless. Ramos nicer” to see two of its jour- and lives in an apartment
had repeatedly targeted nalists “cease breathing.” in Laurel, Maryland. He was
Authorities said Ramos bar- staffers with angry, profan- Then Ramos “went silent” employed by an IT contrac-
ricaded the rear exit of the ity-laced tweets. for more than two years, tor for the U.S. Labor De-
office to prevent anyone “There’s clearly a history Marquardt said. partment’s Bureau of Labor
from escaping and me- there,” the police chief “This led us to believe that Statistics from 2007 to 2014,
thodically blasted his way said. he had moved on, but for a department spokesman
through the newsroom Ramos launched so many whatever reason, he de- said.
Thursday with a 12-gauge social media attacks that cided to resurrect his issue The rampage began with
pump-action shotgun, retired publisher Tom Mar- with The Capital yester- a shotgun blast that shat-
gunning down one victim quardt called police in day,” the former publisher tered the glass entrance
trying to slip out the back. 2013. said. to the open newsroom. Ra-
Three editors, a reporter Altomare disclosed Friday “We don’t know why.” mos carefully planned the
and a sales assistant were that a detective investigat- The police chief said some attack, using “a tactical
killed. ed those concerns, holding new posts went up just approach in hunting down
“The fellow was there to a conference call with an before the killings but au- and shooting the innocent
kill as many people as attorney for the publishing thorities didn’t know about people,” prosecutor Wes In this June 28 2018 photo re-
leased by the Anne Arundel
he could,” Anne Arundel company, a former corre- them until afterward. Adams said. Police, Jarrod Warren Ramos
County Police Chief Timo- spondent and the paper’s Few details were released He said the gunman had poses for a photo, in Annapo-
thy Altomare said. publisher. on Ramos, other than that an escape plan, too, but lis, Md.
Ramos, clean-shaven with The police report said the he is single, has no children would not elaborate.q Associated Press
long hair past his shoulders, attorney produced a trove
was denied bail in a brief of tweets in which Ramos
court appearance he at- “makes mention of blood
tended by video, watching in the water, journalist hell,
attentively but saying noth- hit man, open season, glad
ing. there won’t be murderous
Authorities said he was “un- rampage, murder career.”
cooperative” with interro- The detective, Michael Pral-
gators. He was placed on ey, said in the report that
a suicide watch in jail. His he “did not believe that Mr.
public defenders had no Ramos was a threat to em-
comment. ployees” at the paper, not-
The charges carry a maxi- ing that Ramos hadn’t tried
mum penalty of life without to enter the building and
parole. Maryland has no hadn’t sent “direct, threat-
death penalty. ening correspondence.”
The bloodshed initially “As of this writing the Capi-
stirred fears that the recent tal will not pursue any
surge of political attacks on charges,” Praley wrote. “It
the “fake news media” had was described as putting
exploded into violence. But a stick in a beehive which
by all accounts, Ramos the Capital Newspaper
had a specific, longstand- representatives do not wish
ing grievance against the to do.”
paper. Marquardt, the former pub-
President Donald Trump, lisher, said he talked with
who routinely calls reporters the newspaper’s attorneys
“liars” and “enemies of the about seeking a restraining
people,” said, “Journalists, order but didn’t because
like all Americans, should he and others thought it
be free from the fear of be- could provoke Ramos into
ing violently attacked while something worse.
doing their jobs.” “We decided to take the
Ramos had filed a defa- course of laying low,” he
mation lawsuit against the said Friday.
paper in 2012 after it ran an Later, in 2015, Ramos
article about him pleading tweeted that he would
guilty to harassing a wom- like to see the paper stop
an. A judge later threw it publishing, but “it would be