Defiant journalists carry on after gunman kills 5 in newsroom massacre
TEN journalists who survived a US newsroom massacre published a defiant special edition today just hours after a gunman shot dead five of their colleagues.
The killer, named as Jarrod Ramos, 38, turned the offices of the Capital Gazette in Maryland into a “war zone” when he launched the deadly attack armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades. The killings led to heightened security at newsrooms across the United States, with police e putting armed guards outside newspapers in New w York and Washington .
Capital Gazette staff — who continued reporting g on the gun rampage as itt was happening — said the killer shot through a glass door into the newsroom before bursting in and picking off his helpless victims.
The newspaper carried a story in its print edition today about the massacre under the headline: “5 Shot Dead at the Capital.” Its editor, Rick Hutzell, was quoted as saying: “We are heartbroken, devastated. Our colleagues and friends are gone.”
The victims were named as reporter Wendi Winters, 65, sub-editor Robert Hiaasen, 59, editorial writer Gerald Fischman, 61, reporter John McNamara, 56, and sales assistant Rebecca Smith, 34, who had just joined the staff. Mr Hiaasen was the brother of author Carl Hiassen, who was “devastated and heartsick”.
Ramos reportedly had a vendetta against the newspaper, in Annapolis, after it carried a story about him stalk- ining a woman on social mmedia. “There is nothii nn g mo re terrifying tthan hearing multiple ppeople get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Gazette reporter Phil Davis tweeted. He described the scene as a “war zone” in a story posted to the daily newspaper’s website within 45 minutes of yesterday ’s shootings.
He had been texting the local police press department about a different story when he sent an urgent message at 2.41pm: “Help. Shooting at office.”
Mr Davis said later: “I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time. But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatising it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”
Chase Cook, a reporter, tweeted: “I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.”
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said deputy county police chief William Krampf. Another police spokesman said: “This person had some sort of vendetta against the Capital.” The newspaper, founded in 1727, is said to have received “violent threats” recently on social media.
Police were at the scene in minutes and found Ramos cowering under a desk. He had mutilated his fingertips to prevent his fingerprints being c h e c ke d b u t h e w a s identified through facial recognition technology. Ramos, who worked at the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, reportedly carried a grudge against the newspaper for years after it ran a story about him harassing a former high school classmate on Facebook and by email, and he unsuccessfully sued it for defamation.
He sent the woman a string of emails telling her to kill herself, and pleaded guilty to harassment in 2011 after she complained to police. She said today she warned an ex-police officer years ago that Ramos was a “nut job” and would be the “next mass shooter”. President Donald Trump tweeted his “thoughts and prayers” were with the victims’ families.