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The reason for one of the worst attacks on journalists in the history of the United States was revealed: the man who fired a shotgun Thursday with a rifle in the newspaper The Capital Gazette The city of Annapolis, which killed 5 people, had already threatened the newspaper and aimed to commit a mbadacre against its employees for revenge and resentment.
Jarrod Ramos, 38, resident of Laurel, Maryland, near Washington DC, was formally charged on Friday with five counts of first degree murder at a hearing at which a judge told him ordered to be detained without bail
Armed with smoke grenades and a shotgun the man entered the newspaper shortly after 3 o'clock. afternoon and killed four journalists and an employee, before the police burst into the building. Ramos, who after trying to hide under an office, was arrested immediately after the attack. He had no documents and did not want to say a word to the interrogators, but was identified through a system known as the Image Repository System (MIRS), which compares in a few minutes the photo of the detainee with 7 million driver license images, 3 million criminal photos and 25 million FBI database
This system , who is questioned by civil rights organizations because it is also used to identify people participating in marches, he immediately announced that the suspect was Ramos, a man who has a long history of problems with the newspaper , including a lawsuit and threats to Twitter's journalists
. At the hearing, the state Attorney General, Wes Adams, pointed out that the judge's finding is that Ramos is a danger to society. This is justified by the evidence that he carefully planned his attack and blocked the back door so that the victims could not escape, before using "a tactical approach to hunt and kill innocent. "
Police Chief Anne Arundel County, Timothy Altomare, stated that Ramos was seeking to "kill as many people as possible" and for this he used a legally acquired rifle "a year or more ago". Police confirmed that Ramos had been resentful with the Capital Gazette for years for publishing a chronicle on his alleged harbadment of a woman. Moreover, Ramos sued the newspaper in 2011 for defamation, but lost the case in first instance and then on appeal. In 2013, he threatened the Gazette on the Internet and the newspaper then preferred not to sue for fear of worsening the situation, Altomare said. For this reason, Ramos appeared in police files.
Eventually, Ramos decided to take revenge in person: he came to the newsroom and started firing. The reporters described minutes of terror by listening to the striker's footsteps and the bullets. Among the victims are Rob Hiaasen, 59, deputy director and brother of the novelist Carl Hiaasen. Gerald Fischman, editor of the editorial page; Wendi Winters, journalist reporting; John McNamara, journalist; and sales badistant Rebecca Smith. The newspaper said two other employees have had non-fatal injuries and have already been released.
Very shortly after the attack, Phil Davis, a journalist covering court cases and the crime for the newspaper. He tweeted that the shooter pulled through a glbad door into the newsroom and that everyone was thrown under their desk.
"There is nothing more terrifying than hearing people being shot at. office and then listen to the attacker's reloading, "Davis said in a tweet. In an interview published later, Davis compared the newsroom to "a war zone."
