A man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades burst into a newspaper office in the US city of Annapolis on Thursday, killing five people in what police described as a "targeted attack." Officials said the shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper was carried out by a white adult male resident of Maryland state who was being questioned in custody.
There were five fatalities and two superficial injuries, the acting police chief of Anne Arundel county, Bill Krampf, told a news conference in Maryland's capital. The Baltimore Sun -- which owns the Capital Gazette -- named Rob Hiaasen, the paper's assistant editor, who mentored young journalists and wrote in a "wryly observant" style, as one of the victims of the shooting.
Krampf said that police did not yet know the shooter's motive, but "we know that there were threats sent to the Gazette through social media." "We're trying to confirm what account that was and we're trying to confirm who actually sent them," Krampf added. US media identified the suspected shooter as Jarrod Ramos, whom the Sun said had a long-running dispute with the newspaper over a 2011 story "that covered a criminal harassment case against him."
Here are the updates of the shooting at Capital Gazette office:
READ: Amid Horror In Its Newsroom, Newspaper's Voice Rang OutWhen a gunman burst through the door of the Capital Gazette newspaper just outside Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday, employees who could do so fled for their lives. Five didn't make it, and more than 20 were wounded by gunfire.
READ: Capital Gazette Shooting 5 dead, Gunman In Custody After Shooting In AnnapolisA man with a vendetta against an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper fired a long gun through the newsroom's glass doors and at its employees, killing five and injuring two others Thursday in a targeted shooting, according to police.
READ: From Charlie Hebdo To Capital Gazette: Attacks Against Media Offices GloballyWhile journalists around the world face violent threats for their work, attacks against media offices like Thursday's deadly shooting inside a US newsroom are relatively rare.
