'How the Hell Was This Guy Allowed to Buy a Gun?': Newspaper Shooting Suspect Reportedly Threatened Journalists Years Before Buying Firearm
Jarrod Ramos, the man police believe carried out the mass shooting at the newspaper Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday, has previously been reported to law enforcement for threats against the journalists, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Ramos is now being charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
Thomas Marquardt, who used to be the paper's editor and publisher, told the Journal that Ramos was "the most threatening person he ever had to deal with as a journalist." Ramos allegedly created a Twitter account just to target the paper's journalists, and at one point posted implying that he wished Marquardt was dead.
“Some people have said the threats were veiled, but it was pretty clear to us working there at the time,” Marquardt, who is now only a contributor to the paper, told the Journal. “They weren’t vague to me at all. I felt threatened the whole time.”
Though the paper reported the threats to the police and an investigation was carried out, the Gazette did not press charges.
Police say Ramos bought the alleged murder weapon, a pump-action shotgun, about a year ago, long after the initial threats were reported.
"How the hell was this guy allowed to buy a gun?" asked conservative pollster Frank Luntz on Twitter in response to the report.
