Former newspaper publisher says he had 'serious concerns' about Annapolis shooting suspect years ago

Law enforcement officials have identified Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, of Laurel, Maryland, as the suspect in Thursday's deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis.

In 2012, Ramos filed a defamation lawsuit against Capital Gazette Communications, former columnist Eric Hartley, and former editor and publisher Thomas Marquardt, in response to an article Hartley wrote in 2011 about a criminal harassment charge against Ramos. The article described Ramos as a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employee with no previous criminal record, who started talking to a former high school classmate online. Over the course of a year, he tried to become her friend, but ended up telling her to kill herself and then allegedly called her work in an attempt to get her fired. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge.

Ramos lost his defamation suit, but spent years harassing the newspaper's staff, Marquardt told The Baltimore Sun. "I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence," he said. "I even told my wife, 'We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.'" Ramos' aunt, Vielka Ramos, told the Sun her nephew is "very intelligent" but "was a loner."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up