Authorities say there are "multiple casualties" after a gunman opened fire at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.
ADVERTISEMENTFive people were killed when a gunman fired at a local newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday, according to police. Several others were injured.
NBC News, citing senior law enforcement officials, said the suspect, who's been identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, was taken into custody for the shooting at the Capital Gazette.
He's been charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
"This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette," deputy chief of Anne Arundel County Police William Krampf told BBC.
The 38-year-old shooter has an apparent history of taking issue with Capital Gazette. In 2012, he filed a lawsuit against Eric Hartley, Thomas L. Marquardt, and Capital Gazette Communications for writing and publishing a story in 2011 that detailed Ramos' alleged online harassment of a former female classmate, to which he later plead guilty as a misdemeanour harassment charge. The court dismissed his defamation suit, citing that Ramos failed to present evidence to "satisfy any of the legal elements of defamation." He then appealed the case, and it was dismissed once again.
Ramos continued his complaints on Twitter, often tweeting threats at the newspaper and its employees.
Phil Davis, a reporter at the paper, tweeted during the shooting that one individual "shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead".
"There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload," he wrote.
Following news of the shooting, the New York Police Department said it has "deployed counterterrorism teams to media organizations in and around New York City."
"These deployments are not based on specific threat information, but rather out of an abundance of caution until we learn more about the suspect and motives behind the Maryland shooting," the NYPD said in a statement.
Investigators found something that they said may be an explosive device.
Anne Arundel County Acting Police Chief Bill Krampf said, "We did recover what we thought may have been an explosive device."
"We don't anticipate having any more explosive devices," he added.
Anne Arundel County police spokesman, Lieutenant Ryan Frashure said police are checking the building in Annapolis for explosives and whether more than one suspect was involved.
The Capital Gazette tweeted they would go ahead with publication of Friday's paper.
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