Mass Shooting: Harassment Victim Recalls Scary Threats

Woman recalls abuse from Jarrod Ramos years ago that was covered by newspaper
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2018 10:55 AM CDT
Woman Recalls Threats From Newspaper Shooting Suspect
Suspect Jarrod Ramos.   (Anne Arundel Police Department via AP)

Last week's fatal shooting in a Maryland newsroom has been blamed on the suspect's long-simmering anger with the Capital Gazette over its coverage of a harassment complaint against him years ago. Now the woman who lodged that complaint has given an interview to NBC News, saying that she feared for her life after Jarrod Ramos began threatening her. "I was afraid he could show up at any point, any place ... and kill me," she says. The woman identified only as Lori says Ramos first reached out to her via email in 2009, telling her he did so because she was the only person nice to him in high school. But she says their casual notes took a turn when she failed to respond to an email quickly. Ramos became belligerent and abusive, telling her to kill herself and warning her to get a protective order.

"As soon as they said it happened at the Capital newspaper and they couldn't identify their suspect, I picked up the phone and said, 'I know who your suspect is,'" says Lori. "I knew if he was to do anything on a mass shooting level, it was going to target the Capital." She adds that she has "been tormented and traumatized and terrorized for so long that it has, I think, changed the fiber of my being." Ramos eventually pleaded guilty to criminal harassment in the case. The newspaper, meanwhile, is out with an editorial saying it will never forget the outpouring of support after five of its staffers were killed. "Here's what else we won't forget," it reads. "Death threats and emails from people we don't know celebrating our loss, or the people who called for one of our reporters to get fired because she got angry and cursed on national television after witnessing her friends getting shot." (More Capital Gazette shooting stories.)

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