Police were warned about Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, before he went on his shooting rampage. An unnamed woman who claims she was stalked, harassed and sued her said that she warned a police officer that he would be the next mass shooter and that he was a certified nutjob.
The police took no action until after the man killed 5 and wounded 7 others at the offices of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md. Jayne Miller, an investigative reporter at WBAL interviewed the woman who said Ramos had become fixated with her and that his harassment caused her to move three times, change her name and had to start sleeping with a gun under her pillow.
Rob Hiaasen, 59, Wendi Winters, 65, Rebecca Smith, 34, Gerald Fischman, 61, and John McNamara were shot and killed during Ramos’ rampage, the acting chief of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, William Krampf, told a news conference Thursday.
All were journalists except Smith, who was a sales assistant, he said.
Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records.
Ramos, of Laurel, Md., about 25 miles west of Annapolis, is scheduled for a bail review hearing at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Anne Arundel County criminal court. He did not have an attorney listed.
This is just another example in a long line of examples where law enforcement officers ignore obvious threats and that includes the FBI multiple times. We have to start doing something about the mentally ill that go off on these shooting rampages. That may not be easy as the ACLU has won multiple cases in which people were committed against their will and had to be released, even when they are a danger to themselves and others.
I remember living in the New York City metro area years ago and police picked up a homeless woman and took her to a shelter. The ACLU took up her case and it was determined that you cannot force someone to go to a shelter no matter what. People came forward and got her an apartment, furnished it and even got her a good job. Six months later she was homeless again.
You can’t help some people but if they are a danger, you can’t just ignore it.