The man suspected of killing five people and injuring several others at a Maryland newspaper had a "vendetta" against the paper and had made threats on social media, officials say.
Jarrod Ramos, 38, opened fire at the Capital Gazette newspaper building in Annapolis, Maryland, Thursday, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told NBC News. Anne Arundel County police declined to provide the suspect's name.
Authorities said the suspect was armed with smoke grenades and a shotgun.
"This individual had some type of vendetta against the Capital newspaper, and they were specifically targeted," Lt. Ryan Frashure said in a briefing Thursay night.
Ramos sued the Capital for defamation in 2012 after the paper published an article in 2011 about criminal harassment to which Ramos pleaded guilty.
In what a judge called "rather bizarre" behavior, Ramos used Facebook to contact a woman he knew in high school and then sent her threatening emails, called her vulgar names and told her to kill herself, court documents and the article say.
"If you're on Facebook, you've probably gotten a friend request or message from an old high school classmate you didn't quite remember," the article begins. "For one woman, that experience turned into a yearlong nightmare."
The article says Ramos contacted the woman and thanked him for being kind to him in high school. She wrote back, and they emailed. She suggested he see a counselor.
Then, he lashed out at her. She "lived in fear for her safety for months," the article says.
Ramos was charged with criminal harassment in Anne Arundel County and pleaded guilty. Initially, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Then, a judge suspended the sentence and placed him on probation for 18 months, ordered him to undergo therapy and required that he have no contact with the woman or her family.
Ramos sued the Capital for defamation but failed to prove that anything in the story was false. Court documents say a judge "probed the appellant to point out a single statement in the article that was actually false or to give a single example of how he had been harmed by the article. He could not do so."
Judge Maureen M. Lamasney dismissed Ramos' claim in 2013, ruling that the article was accurate and based on public record.
"They reported a matter of public interest," the court ruled.
Ramos then appealed and lost.
Former editor of the Capital Gazette Tom Marquardt told News4 that Ramos threatened him and a former reporter numerous times during the years Ramos pursued the defamation suit.
Marquardt said they were so afraid that they reported the threats to Anne Arundel County Police, but police didn't believe there was enough to charge Ramos.
"I thought the guy was a physical threat and the police didn't. The police didn't feel like there was enough there that they could pursue it so I'm disappointed, angry. I'm angry that this guy was still walking around and making all these tweets," Marquardt said.
A Twitter page with Ramos' name on it has angry posts about the newspaper over a period of years as well as tweets about Maryland judges and the lawsuit.
Marquardt said he and his staff never met Ramos in person, but felt threatened and had a newsroom meeting about Ramos. He said he was afraid of the suspect and for his own family.
Marquardt said he felt sick to his stomach when he heard about the shooting.
In the wake of the shooting, police department spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure said the suspect threatened the Capital on social media.
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