Man Accused Of Killing 5 In Capital Gazette Shooting Rampage Indicted On 23 Counts

The man accused of killing five in a shooting at the Capital Gazette’s newsroom has been indicted on 23 counts charging him with murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons offenses. Jarrod Ramos, 38, was found hiding under a desk June 28 after he blasted through the newsroom’s glass doors and fired at newspaper employees in a targeted attack, police said. Ramos had a long-running vendetta against the paper after he lost a defamation case involving a column it published about his pleading guilty to harassing a former high school classmate over social media. The rampage in an office building just outside of Maryland’s capital of Annapolis left five dead: editorial editor Gerald Fischman, 61; assistant editor Rob Hiaasen, 59; sportswriter and editor John McNamara, 56; sales assistant Rebecca Smith, 34 and reporter Wendi Winters, 65. The indictment, announced Friday by the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office, also accused Ramos of attacking six other reporters and employees: Paul Gillespie, Selene San-Felice, Phillip Davis, Janel Cooley, Anthony Messenger and Rachael Pacella. The shooting is one of the nation’s deadliest attacks involving journalists in decades and prompted newsrooms nationwide to heighten security. Davis, a public safety reporter, sent tweets about the shooting after police apprehended Ramos, of Laurel. “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Davis wrote. Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams is expected to prosecute the case along with two assistant state’s attorneys.