A woman stalked by the man who allegedly shot dead five people at a Maryland newspaper last week told NBC’s "Today Show" on Monday she always feared he would explode.
"I knew if he was to do anything on a mass shooting level, it was going to target The Capital [Gazette]," said the woman, who asked to be identified only as Lori.
Jarrod Ramos, 38, is being held without bail on first-degree murder after authorities say he stormed into the Annapolis newsroom and opened fire -- six years after he sued the newspaper.
The defamation lawsuit involved a column about Lori, who said she was cyberstalked by Ramos, a former high school classmate. He pleaded guilty to criminal harassment in 2011 and placed on 18 months of supervised probation.
"We were sending just short emails back and forth every couple days and then all the sudden out of nowhere one day he sent me this really angry email," she told "Today."
"He said something along the lines of he was worried about me, that I hadn't responded to him in three or four days, what was wrong with me, why was I doing this to him?"
As the online stalking continued, Lori moved out of fear, she said.
"I used to come home from work, and I used to drive by my house every day and pause and make sure nothing looked amiss, make sure my windows looked cracked, my door wasn't ajar," she said.
"I was afraid he could show up at any point, any place . . . and kill me . . . I know he can't come and get me today, but I have been tormented and traumatized and terrorized for so long that it has, I think, changed the fiber of my being."
The attorney representing Ramos did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
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