Suspect in Maryland newsroom rampage charged with murder

Source: France 24

June 29, 2018 at 14:07

© Mandel Ngan, AFP | The journalists at the Capital Gazette published their newspaper on June 29, 2018, a day after a shooting at their offices.

A Maryland man was charged with multiple counts of murder on Friday, a day after police say he rampaged through a newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun and killed five people in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in US history.

Police identified the suspect as Jarrod Ramos, 38, from Laurel, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Annapolis. He faces five counts of first degree murder in Anne Arundel County criminal court where a bail hearing was expected at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Friday, The Capital Gazette newspaper group reported.

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.

He is accused of entering the Capital Gazette office on Thursday afternoon with a legally purchased pump-action shotgun and opening fire through a glass door, hunting for victims and spraying the newsroom with gunfire as reporters hid under their desks and begged for help on social media, police and witnesses said.

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