Gunman kills 5 in US newsroom shooting
Washington, June 29
A white man with a long-standing grudge against a newspaper in the US city of Annapolis massacred five persons, mostly journalists, as he blasted his way through its newsroom with a shotgun and smoke grenades in what police say was a “targeted attack.”
The shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, nearly 50 km from Washington, that also injured three others, was the deadliest day for US journalism since 9/11 terror attacks.
The shooter identified as Jarrod Warren Ramos, 38, was on Friday charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Ramos had previously filed a defamation suit against the newspaper in 2012, court records show. “This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette. This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm,” Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf said at a news conference.
The five persons killed in the latest gun rampage are assistant editor Rob Hiaasen, editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, editor and reporter John McNamara, special publications editor Wendi Winters and sales assistant Rebecca Smith, the police said.
According to media reports, Ramos lost a defamation case he had brought against the newspaper over a 2011 column he contended defamed him.
The column provided an account of Ramos’s guilty plea to criminal harassment of a woman over social media, the reports said.
A few hours before the shooting, a profane tweet was posted to a Twitter account under Ramos’ name, specifically calling out the author of the appeals court opinion.
Ramos was taken into custody at the scene and refused to cooperate with authorities. He carried no identification and had damaged his finger tips in an apparent effort to thwart identification by law enforcement, US media reported.
Authorities resorted to using facial recognition software and comparing his face to databases of passports and driver’s license photos.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene,” President Donald Trump tweeted.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in mass shootings and daily tragedies, the epidemic of gun violence has stolen too many lives for far too long. — PTI
‘Speechless’ editors leave edit page blank
- The Capital published an edition on Friday with photographs of each of the victims and a headline “5 shot dead at The Capital” on its front page. The editors left the editorial page blank with a note saying that they were speechless
- Photographs that were widely shared on social media showed newspaper staffers working on laptops in a parking garage to produce Friday’s edition while they waited to learn the fate of colleagues after the shooting
- Capital Gazette runs several newspapers out of its Annapolis office. They include one of the oldest newspapers in the United States, The Gazette, which traces its origins back to 1727
Suspect charged with first-degree murder
The shooter identified as Jarrod Warren Ramos, 38, was on Friday charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Ramos had a longstanding grudge against the newspaper and unsuccessfully sued it for defamation in 2012 over an article that reported how he harassed a former high school classmate, court records showed.
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