On June 28, 2018, a gunman entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and killed five employees. One of the victims was 34-year-old Rebecca Ann Rittenour Smith, a sales assistant at the newspaper. The attacker barricaded the rear exit of the newsroom and used a shotgun during the assault; police found him hiding under a desk after the shooting.

The perpetrator, Jarrod Ramos of Laurel, Maryland, had an extended dispute with the paper dating to a 2011 article about his guilty plea to criminal harassment. Ramos later filed a defamation suit that was dismissed and sent threatening messages to the newspaper in ensuing years. He was arrested at the scene and charged with five counts of first-degree murder, among other charges. Ramos pleaded guilty to all counts in October 2019 while also entering a not criminally responsible plea, leading to a trial on his mental state; a jury later found him criminally responsible and he received multiple life terms plus additional years.