Capital Gazette shooting suspect legally purchased pump-action shot gun about a year ago
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The man charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of five Capital Gazette workers in Annapolis Thursday legally purchased the gun he used.
Although he refused to call him by name, Police Chief Timothy Altomare said at a Friday press conference that 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos bought the pump-action shotgun about a year ago.
Altomare said the shooter intended to "kill as many people as he could kill."
A judge ordered Ramos to remain detained during a court hearing Friday.
Ramos appeared in an Annapolis courtroom via video feed. He appeared to watch attentively during the hearing but never spoke. He was dressed in blue detention clothing.
A prosecutor says Ramos who opened fire at a Maryland newspaper barricaded the exit door so employees couldn't escape.
Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams said Friday that there were two entrances to the office. He says Ramos entered through the front door and "worked his way through the office."
Adams also says one victim who attempted to escape through the back door was shot.
Two newspaper employees who were injured in the incident, Rachel Pacella and Janet Cooley, had been treated at a hospital and released after being injured during Thursday's attack, authorities said.
The city of Annapolis is planning a vigil for the victims who died -- Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, Wendi Winters, John McNamara and Rebecca Smith.
In 2012, Ramos filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper, alleging he was harmed by an article about his conviction in a criminal harassment case a year earlier. The suit was dismissed by a judge who wrote Ramos hadn't shown "anything that was published about you is, in fact, false." An appeals court later upheld the dismissal.
