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

The scene outside the Capital Gazette building.
(Image credit: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)

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.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.