Suspect wrote he aimed to kill everyone in newsroom
3 letters were sent on day of fatal attack
BALTIMORE — A man charged with gunning down five people at a Maryland newspaper sent three letters on the day of the attack, police said, including one that said he was on his way to the Capital Gazette newsroom with the aim “of killing every person present.”
Sgt. Jacklyn Davis, a spokeswoman for Anne Arundel County police, said the letters, received Monday, were mailed to an attorney for The Capital newspaper, a retired judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and a Baltimore judge.
The letter Jarrod Ramos sent to the newspaper’s Baltimore-based lawyer was written to resemble a legal motion for reconsideration of his unsuccessful 2012 defamation lawsuit against the paper, a columnist and then-publisher Tom Marquardt.
Marquardt shared a copy of the letter with The Associated Press.
“If this is how the Maryland Judiciary operates, the law now means nothing,” Ramos wrote. He said a defamation suit was intended for a defamed person to “resort to the courts for relief instead of wreaking his own vengeance.”
“… you were too cowardly to confront those lies, and this is your receipt,” Ramos wrote.
He signed it under the chilling statement: “I told you so.” Below that, he wrote that he was going to the newspaper’s office “with the objective of killing every person present.”
In a letter attached to what appeared to be the faux court filing, he also addressed retired special appeals court Judge Charles Moylan, who ruled against Ramos in his defamation case. Ramos sued the paper after pleading guilty to harassing a high school classmate.
“Welcome, Mr. Moylan, to your unexpected legacy: YOU should have died,” he wrote.
Ramos also sent a document to Maryland’s highest court; it has been sealed at the request of prosecutors.
Wes Adams, Anne Arundel County state’s attorney, asked the Court of Appeals on Wednesday to seal the pleading that Ramos filed on the day of the shooting.
In his motion, Adams wrote: “the pleading creates direct evidence of petitioner’s involvement” in allegations currently under investigation.
Douglas Colbert, a University of Maryland law professor, described the letters as “very powerful” evidence of intent that the state will make full use of at trial. Colbert said as long as it’s established in court that Ramos authored the letters, they will be used to show his “planning and deliberate actions” on the day of the attack.
At a memorial service Monday night for editor Rob Hiassen, Marquardt said he once slept with a baseball bat by his bed because he was so worried about Ramos. He also said that they “stepped up security” at the newspaper years ago and posted Ramos’ photo around the office. “But then he went dormant … and we thought the problem has been solved. Apparently, it was just building up steam,” he said.
Hiaasen was remembered at a “celebration of life” ceremony Monday evening. He was fatally shot at the Capital Gazette along with colleagues Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters.