Capitol Gazette shooting: 'You cannot kill the truth'

The gunman who killed five journalists in a targeted shooting on a Maryland newsroom in 2018 will see life behind bars without the chance of parole.

An Annapolis judge on Tuesday handed down five life sentences to Jarrod Ramos for his premeditated attack on the Capital Gazette office.

Survivors and the victims' families denounced Ramos in impact statements.

Former reporter Selene San Felice, who hid under her desk during the attack, told him: "You cannot kill the truth."

Ramos, 41, will serve consecutive life sentences for the murders of Gazette staff members Wendi Winters, Rebecca Smith, Robert Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman and John McNamara.

He will also serve an additional life sentence for attempted murder, as well as 345 more years in prison on gun and assault charges.

"He killed five people, but no one could ever kill this paper," said Ms San Felice.

State prosecutors also called out the defendant over his lack of remorse and "inability to feel that he is wrong".

On 28 June 2018, armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades, Ramos shot through a glass door into the office and opened fire as staff members took cover under desks.

Police called the massacre a "targeted attack", later detailing three letters Ramos sent out just days earlier, in which he threatened to kill every person in the Gazette newsroom.

The shooter went on to plead guilty to his entire 23-count indictment but his attorneys argued he could not be held responsible for his actions because he was mentally ill.

At the end of a 12-day trial, jurors took less than two hours to decide Ramos should serve time in prison rather than in a mental health facility.