The retired editor and publisher of the Capital Gazette warned staffers to call 911 if they ever ran into Jarrod Ramos years before the deadly…
The retired editor and publisher of the Capital Gazette warned staffers to call 911 if they ever ran into Jarrod Ramos years before the deadly newsroom shooting.
Thomas Marquardt said his colleagues were shown a photo of Ramos after the 38-year-old went on an online campaign against the paper for their coverage of his conviction on harassment charges.
Marquardt — who Ramos once wished was dead on Twitter — said the alleged gunman was the most threatening person he ever dealt with as a journalist.
“Some people have said the threats were veiled, but it was pretty clear to us working there at the time,” Marquardt told the Wall Street Journal Friday, a day after five Gazette staffers were gunned down in their Annapolis, Maryland newsroom. “They weren’t vague to me at all. I felt threatened the whole time.”
Marquardt led the local daily paper when Ramos’ long-simmering grudge started. In 2013, he created a Twitter account to launch threats against the publication.
“Everyone knew what he looked like,” said Marquardt, who now lives in Florida. “We took it very seriously.”
The retired 70-year-old urged the paper’s lawyers to contact the sheriff’s department in Anne Arundel County to investigate but ultimately, the paper decided not to pursue criminal charges.
In 2012, Ramos sued the Gazette, then-columnist Eric Hartley and Marquardt for defamation over the paper’s story a year before about his harassment case.
Ramos copped to harassing a female high school classmate and received a suspended jail sentence and probation.
The Gazette published the story titled, “Jarrod wants to be your friend” five days after his guilty plea.
A judge threw out Ramos’ suit and an appeals court upheld that decision in 2015, saying he didn’t “come close to alleging a case of defamation.”
Neither Hartley, who is no longer with the paper, nor Marquardt were present in the newsroom Thursday afternoon when Ramos blasted through the office with a shotgun.
Ramos was held without bail Friday. He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
