Police say suspect planned Capital Gazette newspaper rampage

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A man with a long grudge against Maryland’s capital-city newspaper was charged Friday with five counts of first-degree murder after police said he blasted his way into the newsroom with a shotgun in an attack that left four journalists and a sales employee dead. 

Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was swiftly arrested as he tried to hide under a desk Thursday afternoon at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, police said. On Friday morning, a judge ordered him to be held without bail.

Acting Police Chief William Krampf of Anne Arundel County said the gunman “looked for his victims” in the newsroom.

“This person was prepared today to come in. This person was prepared to shoot people,” Krampf said. 

Police were giving an update the investigation Friday morning. Watch the press conference in the player above.  

The suspect used a pump-action shotgun legally purchased about a year ago, Anne Arundel County police chief Timothy Altomare confirmed Friday. He said investigators have conducted a search warrant of the suspect’s home and uncovered evidence indicating he had planned the attack.

“The fellow was there to kill as many people as he could kill,” Altomare said.

Altomare wouldn’t detail what investigators found, but said they did not uncover a written manifesto. 

He said the suspect has not been cooperating. 

Altomare said the suspect had a history with county police and had made threats online in 2013. A detective spoke with legal counsel for the Capital Gazette and several members of the Capital Gazette staff at the time, but the newspaper didn’t wish to pursue criminal charges over “a fear that doing so would exacerbate an already flammable situation.”