Police called suspect in newsroom rampage no threat in 2013

The man accused of killing five people at a Maryland newspaper was investigated five years ago for a barrage of menacing tweets against staff members, but a detective concluded he was no threat, and the paper didn't want to press charges for fear of inflaming the situation, according to a police report released yesterday.

The newspaper was afraid of "putting a stick in a beehive." The 2013 police report added to the picture emerging of Jarrod W Ramos, 38, as the former information-technology employee with a longtime grudge against The Capital of Annapolis was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in US history.

Authorities said Ramos barricaded the rear exit of the office to prevent anyone from escaping and methodically blasted his way through the newsroom on Thursday with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, gunning down one victim trying to slip out the back.

Three editors, a reporter and a sales assistant were killed.

The bloodshed initially stirred fears that the recent surge of political attacks on the "fake news media" had exploded into violence. But by all accounts, Ramos had a specific, longstanding grievance against the paper.

Ramos had filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper in 2012 after it ran an article about him pleading guilty to harassing a woman. A judge later threw it out as groundless. Ramos had repeatedly targeted staffers with angry, profanity-laced tweets.

"There's clearly a history there," the police chief said.

Ramos launched so many social media attacks that retired publisher Tom Marquardt called police in 2013.

Altomare disclosed yesterday that a detective investigated those concerns, holding a conference call with an attorney for the publishing company, a former correspondent and the paper's publisher.

The police report said the attorney produced a trove of tweets in which Ramos "makes mention of blood in the water, journalist hell, hit man, open season, glad there won't be murderous rampage, murder career."
The detective, Michael Praley, said in the report that he "did not believe that Mr. Ramos was a threat to employees" at the paper, noting that Ramos hadn't tried to enter the building and hadn't sent "direct, threatening correspondence."
Later, in 2015, Ramos tweeted that he would like to see the paper stop publishing, but "it would be nicer" to see two of its journalists "cease breathing."
"This led us to believe that he had moved on, but for whatever reason, he decided to resurrect his issue with The Capital yesterday," the former publisher said. "We don't know why."