Capital Gazette shooter sentenced to life in prison

Capital Gazette shooter sentenced to life in prison

Five Gazette employees were killed in the June 2018 shooting.

September 28, 2021, 3:03 PM

• 3 min read

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Jarrod Warren Ramos, the gunman who killed five Capital Gazette employees in June 2018, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ramos, 41, pleaded guilty to 23 criminal charges in connection with the Annapolis, Maryland, newsroom shooting but used an insanity defense to claim he was not criminally responsible. A jury found him criminally responsible over the summer.

Anne Arundel County Judge Michael Wachs handed down the sentence of five consecutive life sentences to be served without the chance for parole, bringing an end to the long, legal battle.

Jarrod Ramos, who killed five people at a Maryland newspaper in 2018, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, for one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.

Ramos opened fire on employees inside the Capital Gazette's office building and killed Wendi Winters, John McNamera, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith.

Family members of victims and survivors of the shooting spoke during the emotional hearing.

“There were days I wondered why I lived, but I lived to tell the truth. No shooter could kill this paper. You can’t kill the truth,” Selene San Felice, a reporter who survived the shooting, said to Ramos at the hearing, Maryland news radio station WBAL reported.

A makeshift memorial is seen at the scene outside the office building housing The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., July 1, 2018.

Prosecutors said revenge was Ramos' motivation for the shooting.

Ramos had accused the Capital Gazette of destroying his reputation when it covered his misdemeanor harassment conviction in 2011. He was accused of harassing a former female high school student and filed several lawsuits against the newspaper, which were dismissed by the courts.

This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.

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