ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) The gunman accused of killing five people in a vendetta against a Maryland newspaper barricaded the rear exit to prevent anyone from escaping and blasted his way through the newsroom with a pump-action shotgun, cutting down one victim trying to slip out the back, authorities said Friday.
The fellow was there to kill as many people as he could, Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare said after Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was charged with five counts of murder in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.
Ramos long-held grudge against the Capital Gazette included a string of angry online messages and a failed defamation lawsuit over a column about him pleading guilty to harassing a woman. Police looked into the online threats in 2013, but the paper declined to press charges for fear of inflaming the situation, Altomare said.
