Jarrod Ramos is charged with five counts of 1st-degree murder.
Annapolis, Md (KM) An Anne Arundel County District Court Judge on Friday ordered the suspect in a deadly shooting Thursday at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis to continue to be held without bond. Jarrod Ramos, 38, was arrested after the shootings at the newspaper which left five people dead.
Following the hearing, Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams spoke with reporters. He said the case will now go to a preliminary hearing, or a grand jury for indictments. After that, it will be forwarded to Circuit Court.
Adams said his office argued before Judge Thomas Pryal that Ramos was a danger to the community. “Mr. Ramos is alleged to have executed a brutal series of attacks on innocent victims. Most importantly, my responsibility today {Friday} was to inform the court as to why Mr. Ramos was a either a flight risk or a danger to our community,” he said.
In comments to reporters, Adams outlined how Ramos allegedly carried out the killings of five people at the Capital Gazette on Thursday. “There were two entrances to the offices in which this attack occurred. The rear door was barricaded. Mr. Ramos, as I told the judge, entered into the front door and worked his way through the office where he was shooting victims as he walked through the office,” he said.
Adams said one of the five people who was killed tried to escape through the blocked exit. Ramos was apprehended by police while hiding under a desk.
Ramos has also been placed on a suicide watch. The Judge at Friday’s hearing was told about that.
The defendant is 38, single, and has been living in Laurel for the past 17 years in an apartment. He has no children.
A makeshift memorial was erected near the Capital Gazette’s headquarters. Some visitors dropped by on Friday, including Christine Feldmann, a public relations expert who has worked with the newspaper over the years. “The people who work here are our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. So it’s like a part of us has been taken with their death as well,” she said.
But she said this incident won’t stop journalists from doing their jobs. “It won’t stop democracy. It won’t stop this country. It won’t stop journalism. But we certainly need to remember the folks who did die, fighting for our own freedom,” said Feldmann.
By Kevin McManus