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Capital Gazette shooting suspect seen as angry loner, obsessed with those who 'wronged' him

He left a years-long trail of harassment, threats and contemptuous behavior. There were dozens of warning signs that he might turn violent — including repeated threats of killing a journalist.

Although none of that was seemingly taken very seriously by authorities, Jarrod Ramos’ words and online activity offer examples that in hindsight could have prompted a stronger response from his employers, police and the court system. Ramos is now charged with killing five people at a Maryland newspaper last week.

USA TODAY reviewed thousands of pages of court records and interviewed dozens of people who knew or interacted with Ramos to build this profile. It shows an angry man who became obsessed with the people he felt wronged him, from a former high school classmate and her lawyer to the judges he appeared before and the journalists who exposed his campaign of harassment.

Experts say the attack at the Capital Gazette highlights the challenges of trying to balance the rights of individuals to speak freely against concerns that they could turn violent. In a court filing, Ramos said he had seen five mental health professionals for at least 75 visits before last week's shooting.

“You can’t lock someone up because you have an inner fear about what he might do," said Richard Barajas, the executive director of the National Organization for Victim Assistance and the former chief judge of the Texas Court of Appeals. “The criminal justice system is not designed for it. And the mental health system is ill-equipped to do it.”

Despite his pattern of making threats, Ramos never offered any hint he would actually act on them. He'd been engaged a lengthy fight with the Capital Gazette over its 2011 coverage of a court case in which he pleaded guilty to harassing a former classmate. In one court filing, for instance, Ramos said he wanted to kill journalist Eric Hartley, but phrased it in a very specific way: "If not illegal, (I) would kill the living body of Hartley."

Still, his behavior was enough to strike fear in attorney Brennan McCarthy, who represented the high school classmate that Ramos pleaded guilty to harassing.

McCarthy chillingly warned in a court filing: "There exists a very real possibility that at some point in time, Mr. Ramos will take these violent fetishes as expressed in print, and will try to carry them out in person."

RELATED: Capital Gazette shooting suspect Jarrod Ramos remembered as 'loner' obsessed with reputation

RELATED: Accused Capital Gazette shooter had sued paper, held grudge

Court filings show disdain for the legal system

Ramos' extensive court filings provide a window into his hyperbolic contemptuous attitude toward the legal system. After a judge sentenced him to counseling and probation for online stalking his former classmate, Ramos tried to have the woman prosecuted for perjury, suggested the judge should be disbarred and then unsuccessfully sued the journalist and newspaper. He criticized one court clerk for being sloppy because her mother was ill and suggested another made mistakes because she was thirsty.

Ramos titled sections of his court filings "Murder of the spirit" and "blood on their hands," and acknowledged he told his former classmate to "have another drink and go hang yourself, you cowardly little lush.” He emailed her boss to say she was a “bipolar drunkard leading a double life.” He then insisted he was "not a wantonly abusive person," and hadn't hurt anyone since he was a child. Ramos lost out on a job opportunity with a former boss who found out about the court case and said he’d only hire him once it was resolved.

The initial Capital Gazette article about Ramos in 2011 highlighted the dangers posed by online relationships, which then were still a relatively new phenomenon. Experts say today, Ramos' actions might have been taken more seriously.

"It’s possible that the courts may have taken a different approach had they realized the level of threat," said Dr. Victor Fornari, a psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York. "On the other hand, are we accustomed to putting people in custody for what they say? Usually not. We’re innocent until proven guilty. There’s a real tension between free will, free speech and public safety.”

On Monday, it was revealed that Ramos sent letters the day of the shooting — to the newspaper's former attorney, a courthouse in Baltimore and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, and a law office — announcing his murderous intentions to kill "every person present."

Related: Capital Gazette shooting suspect sent threatening letters on day of rampage, police say

Twitter postings reveal animosity 

On Twitter, Ramos regularly attacked the Capital Gazette, its journalists, editors and the judge who presided over the case. He centered many of his threats on the former reporter who wrote about his harassment conviction, Eric Thomas Hartley, and the retired publisher, Tom Marquardt.

Ramos almost regularly posted comments on how he wanted members of the staff to kill themselves and his hopes that the paper would shut down. He repeatedly included the hashtag #CapDeathWatch.

In a September 2014 post, Ramos mentioned a shotgun, saying “My bullets are words.” Police say Ramos used a shotgun in the shooting.

In one haunting tweet in February 2015, Ramos’ account said, “I'll enjoy seeing @capgaznews cease publication, but it would be nicer to see Hartley and Marquardt cease breathing.”

Ramos' Twitter account featured Hartley's picture as its avatar and included the tagline "making corpses of corrupt careers." On Hartley's forehead was an image inserted from the Japanese manga and anime series "Berserk," which recounts the ritual murder of people marked with it. Ramos also placed the symbol on Marquardt's head.

Marquardt contacted local police and considered getting a restraining order. Police investigated but could not conclude Ramos would act on his threats. Since last week's shooting, police have not commented on his past behavior or their interactions with him, citing the murder case against Ramos.

“Did I feel disappointed? Absolutely,” Marquardt said.

He said he accepted the outcome and decided it would be best for everyone at the Capital to maintain a low profile. Still, a photograph of Ramos was circulated to all employees so that they would be aware of him.

RELATED: Capital Gazette reveals how shooting unfolded as memorial services begin in Annapolis

Ramos' loathing of the press also extended beyond the Capital.

In 2014, he posted his thoughts on the beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff and accused the press of propaganda. “Journalists making a living (literally) by participating in propaganda is nothing new,” he wrote. “Think about it.”

Ramos also posted multiple times about the 2015 attack at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, even including photoshopped images of one magazine staff member with a bullet hole in his head and blood on his face.

In a 2014 court filing, attorney McCarthy alerted the court to Ramos' Twitter postings and noted the threats had escalated over time. McCarthy also warned the court to never let Ramos be alone with a female worker.

"Of the thousands of people I’ve dealt with in court, this guy stuck," he said. "I was extremely scared that he was going to do something to me and my family."

McCarthy called Ramos a "classic loner" and "as angry and obsessive an individual as you will ever meet."

He also said Ramos viewed anyone who opposed him as an enemy: "He described adverse parties as belligerents... Like he's at war."

RELATED: 'Most dangerous person I've ever dealt with': Lawyer feared newspaper murder suspect

Establishing a 'true threat' can be difficult

Police look closely at the language used in threats when deciding whether to act.

In January, a Michigan man was charged with threatening CNN. The FBI said Brandon Griesemer, a 19-year-old grocery worker, called the CNN switchboard in Atlanta and said, “Fake news, I’m coming to gun you all down,” according to his federal criminal complaint, and “I have a gun and I am coming to Georgia right now.”

Griesemer was charged with a federal crime that carries a fine and up to five years in prison. The complaint says Griesemer phoned in threats to the news agency 22 times over a two-day period. His case is still pending.

Supreme Court scrutiny has helped establish what a “true threat” entails, a carve-out from First Amendment-protected speech, said Sarah Duggin, a law professor at the Catholic University of America.

“The line for charging ordinarily is if there’s a threat, was there intent to threaten on the part of the caller, not what a reasonable person would think.” Duggin said. “The ‘true threat’ exception in Virginia vs. Black established there’s no First Amendment protection for speech meant to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence.”

Cyberstalking taken seriously in recent years

Barajas, the former judge, said society has changed in the years since Ramos first began harassing his former classmate.

Someone who was once seen as merely nutty, awkward or socially inept must be taken seriously if they make threats, Barajas said. In one court filing, Ramos notes a court worker said he was very good at hassling someone without crossing the line into outright harassment.

“Years ago, we would have ignored it or simply blown it off," Barajas said. “We never looked at them as dangerous, only because we no had reason to think they were dangerous. But then it becomes a question of what do you do with them? Our court systems are not created to deal with things like this, these innuendoes.”

Fornari urged public safety officials to take seriously any complaints that someone is being stalked or harassed online. But he acknowledged the challenge in finding the right time to intervene.

“There’s no question that cyberstalking is terrifying. On the other hand, our ability to predict dangerousness is quite limited," he said. “We do know that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. These kinds of cases point to the fact that things people say may have to be taken very seriously.”

Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, Rachel Axon, Stephen Reilly