Capital Gazette: five dead in US newspaper shooting

Five people were killed and several more wounded yesterday, when a lone gunman opened fire with a shotgun in the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

Staff at the newspaper say the suspected gunman shot through a glass door and into the newsroom, killing four people at the scene. A fifth victim died after being taken to hospital.

“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Gazette reporter Phil Davis said on Twitter.

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The Capital Gazette has identified the suspected gunman as 38-year-old Maryland resident Jarrod Ramos, who had “a long-running feud” with the paper.

The gunman was carrying “canisters with smoke grenades that he used inside the building”, The Washington Post reports. He was reportedly found hiding beneath a desk, and was arrested without further incident.

CNN says the gunman’s fingerprints “appear to have been altered, making it difficult to identify him that way”. He was later identified by police using facial recognition software.

Acting police chief William Krampf said threats of violence had been sent to the newspaper on social media earlier in the day.

“This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people,” Krampf said. “His intent was to cause harm.”