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“The attack on the Capital Gazette, in which four journalists and a sales assistant were murdered, is the most deadly day for the media that we have recorded in the United States since we began tracking data in 1992,” said Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which collects data on journalists killed in work-related incidents worldwide.
News reports Thursday night naming the suspected shooter identified him as a man who had previously sued the newspaper for defamation and lost. In the global context, an attack on local journalists for covering a small local issue is far from unprecedented, Simon said.
Many of the attacks that CPJ tracks targeted local journalists who “reported on very local issues and got killed as a result,” including for issues that might seem “fairly petty,” like coverage of cockfighting or an expose of a local politician, Simon said.
“Journalists who work in a very local context, they have an intimate relationship with the communities they cover. When powerful figures in their communities are upset with them, they know precisely who the journalists are,” Simon said. “The anger they feel, in their own minds, about being exposed within their own communities can be a powerful force that leads them into this violence.”
“Not all of these crimes are carried out because of some national conflict or some high-profile corruption scandal or human rights issues. A lot of them are responsive to journalists working in their own communities, exposing corruption or wrongdoing of powerful figures within those communities.”
According to Committee to Protect Journalists statistics the deadliest day for journalists globally was November 23, 2009, in the Phillipines, when “29 journalists and two media support workers were ambushed and brutally slain” in a “politically motivated ambush,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, which left 12 people dead, is the “most comparable event” to Thursday’s shooting, Simon said.
“Multiple killings of journalists in a global context are not uncommon,” Simon said, but “But this is an unprecedented event in the United States.”
With many details about the attack still unknown, Simon cautioned against linking Thursday’s shooting to President Donald Trump’s continued rhetorical attacks on journalists as “the enemy of the people.”
“Obviously, we’ve expressed our dismay at these comments that President Trump has made, and we’re obviously horrified by what happened today. At this point, knowning what we know, I don’t think it’s wise to make any connection,” Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said.
Thursday's attack at the Capital Gazette newspaper is the deadliest day for journalism in America in several years.
Four people died at the newspaper's office in Annapolis, and a fifth person died after being transported to the hospital.
News of the shooting spree caused a chill in newsrooms across the United States on Thursday. Law enforcement in several cities stepped up security around major news organizations as a precautionary measure.
Threats against members of the media have been on the rise in recent years. But murders of American journalists are very rare.
The last time multiple journalists were killed while on assignment in the U.S. was in 2015, when an ex-employee attacked two members of a WDBJ TV news crew during a live report in Virginia.
Reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward were killed.
On Thursday, Chris Hurst, who was engaged to Parker when she was killed, tweeted in response to the Annapolis shooting, "The threat to journalists is real and became deadly once more today in Annapolis. My condolences to everyone impacted at the @capgaznews newsroom."
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks threats to journalists around the world, said that "seven journalists have been killed in relation to their work in the United States" since the group began its tracking effort in 1992.
The group noted that "a music journalist was killed in Chicago" earlier this year, but "CPJ is still investigating the motive for that killing."
"Newspapers like the Gazette do vital work, and our thoughts are with them amid this unconscionable tragedy," the group's executive director Joel Simon said in a statement. "Violence against journalists is unacceptable, and we welcome the thorough investigation into the motivations behind the shooting."
A gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday afternoon, killing five people, authorities said.
Journalists dived under their desks and pleaded for help on social media. One reporter described the scene as a “war zone.” A photographer said he jumped over a dead colleague and fled for his life.
The victims were identified as Rob Hiaasen, 59, a former feature writer for The Baltimore Sun who joined the Capital Gazette in 2010 as an assistant editor and columnist; Wendi Winters, 65, a community correspondent who headed special publications; Gerald Fischman, 61, the editorial page editor; John McNamara, 56, a staff writer who had covered high school, college and professional sports for decades; and Rebecca Smith, 34, a sales assistant hired in November.
Two others were injured in the attack that began about 2:40 p.m. at the Capital Gazette offices at 888 Bestgate Road in Annapolis.
Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings. He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf. “This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people.”
Local, state and federal law enforcement officials cordoned off the Laurel apartment complex listed as the address for Ramos Thursday evening.
A gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday afternoon, killing five people and injuring two others, authorities said.
Ramos’ dispute with the Capital Gazette began in July 2011 when a columnist wrote about a criminal harassment case against him. He brought a defamation suit against the columnist and the organization’s editor and publisher. A court ruled in the Capital Gazette’s favor, and an appeals court upheld the ruling.
Neither the columnist, Eric Hartley, nor the editor and publisher, Thomas Marquardt, are still employed by the Capital Gazette. They were not present during the shootings.
Police said the suspect used “smoke grenades” in the attack. They said 170 people were inside at the time.
The Capital Gazette is owned by The Baltimore Sun.
Phil Davis, a Capital crime reporter who was in the building at the time of the shooting, said multiple people were shot as he and others hid under their desks. He said there was a single male gunman.
“Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees,” he wrote on Twitter. “Can’t say much more and don’t want to declare anyone dead, but it’s bad.”
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.”
Davis later told The Sun said it “was like a war zone” — a scene that would be “hard to describe for a while.”
“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time,” he said. “But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”
Davis said he and others were hiding under their desks when the shooter stopped firing. Then police arrived and surrounded the shooter.
Photographer Paul Gillespie had finished editing photos from one assignment and was preparing for the next when he heard shots behind him and the newsroom’s glass doors shatter.
He heard another shot, he said, dived under a co-worker’s desk “and curled up as small as I could.”
“I dove under that desk as fast as I could, and by the grace of God, he didn’t look over there,” he said. “I was curled up, trying not to breathe, trying not to make a sound, and he shot people all around me.”
Gillespie said he heard one colleague scream “No!,” then a shot. Then another colleague’s voice, and another shot. He could hear the gunman approaching his hiding place.
“I kept thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to die. I can’t believe this.’ ” Gillespie said.
But the gunman passed him, he said, and continued to shoot. Eventually, there was a lull in the shots. Gillespie stood and ran for the exit, through the shattered glass, jumping over the body of a colleague he believed was dead as another shot rang out in his direction.
He ran to a nearby bank and screamed for people to call the cops.
“I feel like I should be helping to cover it,” he said, “but I’m a mess.”
Authorities said police responded to the scene within a minute of the shooting.
“If they were not there as quickly as they were, it could have been a lot worse," Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said.
Officials at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore confirmed that the hospital was treating at least one victim. County Executive Steve Schuh said others were being treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
Loren Farquhar, a medical center spokeswoman, said the hospital received two patients, both with minor injuries not from gunfire.
The injured employees were identified as Rachael Pacella, a reporter who covers education and the Naval Academy, and Janel Cooley, a sales representative who covers downtown Annapolis. Both were treated and released.
A spokeswoman for the Baltimore Sun Media Group said the company was “deeply saddened” by the shooting.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families,” spokeswoman Renee Mutchnik said. “Our immediate focus is on providing support and resources for all our employees and cooperating with the authorities as this situation is still under investigation.”
President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that he had been briefed on the shooting.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” he wrote. “Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene.”
Josh McKerrow, a Capital Gazette photographer for 14 years, started his day Thursday covering Induction Day at the Naval Academy at sunrise. He was driving home to celebrate his daughter’s birthday when Capital editor Rick Hutzell called.
“He said he’d heard there had been a shooting, and he couldn't get in touch with anyone in the newsroom,” McKerrow said.
Then he heard sirens.
“My heart sank,” McKerrow said. “I knew.”
Police in SWAT gear carrying assault rifles cordoned off the area around the newsroom and closed Bestgate Road. Outside the police tape, McKerrow and reporter Chase Cook called and texted friends and co-workers in search of answers.
Jimmy DeButts, an editor, wrote on Twitter that he was “devastated and heartbroken.”
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in Maryland’s capital on Thursday afternoon, killing five staff members, injuring two others and prompting law enforcement agencies across the country to provide protection at the headquarters of media organizations.
The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody at the scene. He had a long history of conflict with the Capital Gazette, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore, suing journalists there for defamation and waging a social media campaign against them.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Acting Chief William Krampf of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. “This person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm.”
The chilling attack was covered in real time by some of the journalists who found themselves under siege. A summer intern, Anthony Messenger, tweeted out the address of the office building where the newsroom is based, saying “please help us.” A crime reporter, Phil Davis, described how the gunman “shot through the glass door to the office” before opening fire.
