On June 28, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at the offices of The Capital, a newspaper serving Annapolis, Maryland, United States.

[citation needed] The Capital had published an article in 2011 about Ramos being put on probation for harassing an acquaintance from high school through social media and email.

Ramos is alleged to have sent enraged letters and messages to The Capital threatening to attack its newsroom and staff, but no legal action was taken after the threats were received.

At the time of the shooting, its offices were located at 888 Bestgate Road in Parole, an unincorporated area of Anne Arundel County just outside Annapolis.

[12] Around 2:30 p.m., Ramos "shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees", according to Phil Davis, a courts and crime reporter for the Capital who took refuge as the shooting began.

[6] Wendi Winters, a reporter, charged the gunman with a trash can and recycling bin, screaming at him, distracting him long enough for survivors to escape or take refuge between filing cabinets.

[40] In 2012, Ramos sued The Capital in a defamation case he brought over a 2011 newspaper article reporting on his guilty plea for criminal harassment.

[46][49] He was ordered to be held without bail after he was determined to be a flight risk and a danger to the community,[19] and was placed on suicide watch while in custody of law enforcement.

[51] On April 29, 2019, Ramos entered a plea of not guilty and not criminally responsible, and the judge ordered that he be evaluated by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

[79] The Sunday after the shooting, the staff of the Capital Gazette wrote, "We won't forget being called an enemy of the people".

[80] Days before, right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos wrote that he "can't wait for vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight" in text messages to reporters.

[83] Similarly, the Franklin Daily Journal wrote that "the shooting had nothing to do with Trump or his ongoing battle with the press ... the crisis in Maryland allowed people to criticize political opponents who had nothing to do with the actual events".

[84] Governor Hogan tweeted that he was "[a]bsolutely devastated to learn of this tragedy in Annapolis", and asked residents to "heed all warnings and stay away from the area".

[10] In March and April 2019, the Maryland General Assembly voted unanimously to designate June 28 "Freedom of the Press Day" in honor of the victims.

[92] The edition's opinion page was left blank to commemorate the victims, with the exception of a small note stating that the staff members "are speechless".

[93] The Capital published an editorial on July 1, 2018, signed by its entire staff of reporters and editors, thanking the citizens of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County for their support following the shooting.

[94] In December 2018, the staff of Capital Gazette Communications was selected as a recipient of Time's Person of the Year 2018, as one of "The Guardians", a collection of journalists from around the world in their fight against the "War on Truth".

[98][99] The Capital was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation on April 15, 2019, to "honor the journalists, staff and editorial board of the Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief".

Capital Gazette reporter Phil Davis read the names of the deceased, and told the crowds that they were here "to honor who (the victims) were and what their families did not have to go through".

[104] Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley announced that the city planned to hold a summer music festival that will act as a celebration of the freedom of the press and as a memorial for the journalists who were killed.

The event featured performances by the rock bands Good Charlotte and Less Than Jake, a presentation by comedian Jordan Klepper, and a speech by Washington Post editor-in-chief Martin Baron.

[111] In the same month, President Donald Trump signed the act into law, authorizing the FJM Foundation to establish a commemorative work honoring fallen journalists.

[112] A memorial to the five murdered Capital Gazette staffers, entitled Guardians of the First Amendment, was unveiled in Newman Park in Annapolis on June 28, 2021, the third anniversary of the shooting.