US newsroom shooting was ‘targeted attack’ – police

A newspaper stand selling The Capital Gazette is pictured in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 28, 2018. At least five people were killed on Thursday when a gunman opened fire inside the offices of The Capital Gazette, a newspaper published in Annapolis, a historic city an hour east of Washington. A reporter for the daily, Phil Davis, tweeted that a “gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees.” / AFP PHOTO / ZACH GIBSON

Annapolis, United States – A shooting at a newsroom here that left five dead on Thursday was described by police as a “targeted attack” that came after the organization received threats over social media.

“This was a targeted attack on The Capital Gazette,” Bill Krampf, acting police chief of Anne Arundel county, told reporters during a briefing.

He said that police have yet to 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 said.

Krampf said the threats did not appear to target an individual but rather the media outlet as a whole, adding “they indicated violence.”

The attacker, who was previously identified as a white male, was described as being in his “late thirties” and a resident of Maryland.

Krampf added the attacker had used canisters of smoke grenades while entering the office building and “was prepared today to come in.”              /kga