The owner of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, whose journalists turned to victims in a deadly shooting Thursday afternoon, has set up a fundraiser for those injured and the families of those killed in the attack.
The pool of donations — The Capital Gazette Families Fund — will be managed by the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County and every donation, up to $1 million, will be matched by the Michael and Jacky Ferro Family Foundation, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Justin Dearborn, chairman and CEO of tronc, the parent company that owns both the Sun and the Gazette, said the victims of Thursday’s massacre will be remembered as “outstanding people and journalists who we will continue to honor.”
“Yesterday was an incredibly tragic day for our colleagues in Annapolis — a tragedy felt deeply by all of us at our papers across the country,” he wrote in a statement provided to the Sun. “Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and coworkers of Gerald Fischman, Robert Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters, who died Thursday in the shooting at the Capital Gazette.”
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The attacker, 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, was charged Friday with five counts of first-degree murder. While the motive behind the attack isn’t entirely clear, police described the middle-aged gunman’s attack as “targeted.”
In 2011, the disturbed man filed a defamation lawsuit against the Gazette for publishing an article about his conviction for cyberstalking a woman. That woman, according to WBAL-TV, warned Ramos would “be your next mass shooter.”
"He's a f***** nut job" –woman who says she was stalked by suspect in fatal shooting of 5 people at Capital Gazette in Annapolis…says she warned former police official years ago.."he will be your next mass shooter"
— Jayne Miller (@jemillerbalt) June 29, 2018
Capital Gazette shooting suspect Jarrod Ramos bragged about getting the woman he stalked fired when he sued the paper for defamation–then chided the reporter (Hartley) for only writing about him pic.twitter.com/vQvMaaf10g
— Jayne Miller (@jemillerbalt) June 29, 2018
In the aftermath of the defamation lawsuit, Tom Marquardt, former editor and publisher of the Gazette, recalled telling the newspaper’s legal team: “This is a guy who is going to come in and shoot us.”
Please be in continued prayer for the families of the victims killed in the attack, for those injured as a result of the shooting, and for all the first responders and investigators involved in the case.