Security Expert On Capital Gazette Gunman: 'All Of The Early Warning Signs Were There'
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ/AP) -- The suspect who allegedly killed five employees of the Capital Gazette held a long-standing grudge against the paper and even posted online threats for years, but police determined he was no threat. What can be done in a case like this?
"It's awful hard to second-guess investigators or people that made those decisions at the time. But what is clear is all of the early warning signs were there -- escalating threats, lawsuits, social media activity and so on and so forth," Fallston Group Chief Executive Rob Weinhold said.
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Ramos had filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper in 2012 after it ran an article about him pleading guilty to harassing a woman. A judge later threw it out as groundless. Ramos had repeatedly targeted staffers with angry, profanity-laced tweets.
"There's clearly a history there," Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tom Altomare said.
Ramos launched so many social media attacks that retired publisher Tom Marquardt called police in 2013.
Altomare disclosed Friday that a detective investigated those concerns, holding a conference call with an attorney for the publishing company, a former correspondent and the paper's publisher.
The police report said the attorney produced a trove of tweets in which Ramos "makes mention of blood in the water, journalist hell, hit man, open season, glad there won't be murderous rampage, murder career."
The detective, Michael Praley, said in the report that he "did not believe that Mr. Ramos was a threat to employees" at the paper, noting that Ramos hadn't tried to enter the building and hadn't sent "direct, threatening correspondence."
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"As of this writing the Capital will not pursue any charges," Praley wrote. "It was described as putting a stick in a beehive which the Capital Newspaper representatives do not wish to do."
Marquardt, the former publisher, said he talked with the newspaper's attorneys about seeking a restraining order but didn't because he and others thought it could provoke Ramos into something worse.
"We decided to take the course of laying low," he said Friday.
Later, in 2015, Ramos tweeted that he would like to see the paper stop publishing, but "it would be nicer" to see two of its journalists "cease breathing."
Then Ramos "went silent" for more than two years, Marquardt said.
"This led us to believe that he had moved on, but for whatever reason, he decided to resurrect his issue with The Capital yesterday," the former publisher said. "We don't know why."
The police chief said some new posts went up just before the killings but authorities didn't know about them until afterward.
"I'm a firm believer in accountability. To me, bullying and threatening others and harassing others is not for free. There's a mechanism in place -- whether it's criminal and investigators take control of the situation or you go through a peace order process," Weinhold said. "There's a system in place right now and I believe that you need to hold people accountable to make sure that these kinds of actions don't go ignored or that anyone is given a free pass."
Altomare said Friday that the investigator in the 2013 case has retired, but police will be in contact with the detective.
[Reporter: What would they have seen that would have led them to say, 'This is not a viable threat?' or what would they see that would make that person a threat?]
"I think it would be a combination of what the investigator uncovered and then what the will of the news organization was at the time," Weinhold said. "It may be that the legal counsel of the organization collectively decided not to pursue charges, but again, that's a decision that was made in the past. What we know today, hindsight is 20/20 as well all know, they probably would've handled this much, much differently."
Ramos has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bond.
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