WASHINGTON 鈥� The alleged gunman in Thursday’s shooting rampage at the Capital Gazette apparently dropped something in the mail聽鈥� a letter containing threatening taunts, and a confession, before opening fire.
Anne Arundel County police said they believe Jarrod W. Ramos signed and mailed three copies of the letter to the lawyer for the newspaper, Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals and a Baltimore City judge.
The letter, , was dated June 28, the same day of the shooting that killed five people.
It was written in the format of a court filing to Maryland’s Court of Appeals 鈥� the state’s highest court and contains an apparent admission of guilt.
“I then did proceed to the office of respondent Capital-Gazette Communications 鈥� with the objective of killing every person present,” the letter said.
In 2016, the court of appeals refused to hear a defamation case Ramos had filed against the Capital Gazette.
“You were too cowardly to confront those lies, and this is your receipt,” Ramos wrote. “I told you so.”
A聽message to Special Appeals Court Judge Charles Moylan, who had ruled against Ramos聽in his defamation suit, was attached to the letter as an “exhibit.”
“Welcome, Mr. Moylan, to your unexpected legacy. You should have died. Friends forever, Jarrod W. Ramos.”
The Capital Gazette’s former publisher, Thomas Marquardt, told the 鈥� which owns the Annapolis newspaper 鈥� the document was “chilling,” and evidence that the attack was “well-plotted.”
鈥淭his guy was thinking about this for an incredibly long time,” Marquardt said. “It鈥檚 unfortunate that nobody knew it.”
Ramos is charged with five counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Rebecca Smith.
Ramos is being held without bond.
