“This guy was the most dangerous person I’ve ever dealt with in the court system,” McCarthy said. “Because this guy was smart. He was not stupid.” And “he knew how to walk the line” between frightening people and threats that could land him in jail.

“It was a like a silent threat hanging out there,” McCarthy said. “That is even worse because there’s no mechanism of law to stop this guy from doing something you just think he might do. The Capital was in the same boat. They knew how dangerous he was.”

And when McCarthy heard about the shooting at the Capital Gazette, he said he knew instantly that it had been Ramos.

“The moment I heard there was a shooting at the Capital, I told my wife, ‘That’s Jarrod Ramos,'” McCarthy said. “It did not surprise me in the least. The only question was where he would stop by first: My house or their office.”