Annapolis: A man brandishing a shotgun walked into the office of a small newspaper in Maryland on Thursday and killed at least five people in a targeted assault. This is one of the deadliest attacks recorded on a U.S. media outlet.
The suspect described as a white man in his 30s who lives in Maryland fired through a glass door, looked for victims and then sprayed the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper group in Annapolis with gunfire, police and a witness said.
Police officers in the Maryland capital of Annapolis responded within a minute to a 911 call about a shooting in progress and apprehended the suspect hiding under a desk, authorities said.
“His intent was to cause harm,” William Krampf, Anne Arundel County’s acting police chief, told a news conference. “This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette.” He did not say why the gunman may have targeted the newspaper or its employees.
Police are treating the shooting as a local incident, with no links to terrorism, a law enforcement source told Reuters.
When police found the suspect, his weapon was on the ground and “not in his immediate proximity,” Steve Schuh, Anne Arundel county executive, told cable news station CNN.
Police said they recovered what they thought might have been an explosive device but Krampf later said the suspect had smoke grenades. Investigators were in the process of securing his Maryland residence and obtaining search warrants, he said.
The suspect appears to have damaged his fingertips to try to avoid detection and is refusing to cooperate with law enforcement, Baltimore TV station WJZ and other local media reported. Krampf did not comment on those reports.
None of the victims or the suspect have been identified by authorities. Anne Arundel County police said on Twitter the name of the suspect will be released at a later time.
