White man charged with 5 counts of murder in Maryland newspaper shooting

An American white man in his late 30s has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of employees at a newspaper office in the US state of Maryland.

The 38-year-old suspect on Thursday afternoon allegedly targeted The Capital Gazette building in Annapolis, Maryland, shooting his way into the newsroom and killing four journalists and a staffer before police arrested him.

The suspect has been named as Jarrod W. Ramos. In 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and a columnist over a July 2011 article that covered a criminal harassment charge against him.

The court case made staff concerned about the Ramos’ behavior, the newspaper’s former editor said. “He waged a one-person attack on anything he could muster in court against the Capital,” said Tom Marquardt. “I said during that time, ‘This guy is crazy enough to come in and blow us all away.’”

According to reports, Ramos did not have an attorney listed but has a 10:30 a.m. hearing for bail on Friday.

Police and federal agents gathered on Thursday night outside Ramos’ address.  Police said his officers were there as part of the investigation into the shooting at the newspaper.

Police said Thursday the shooting was “a targeted attack” on the newspaper and not an incident of terrorism.

Despite the attack, the Gazette on Friday still put out a paper that reported the news of the five deaths.

Each year, more than 32,000 people die as a consequence of gun-related violence in the United States, which is by far the highest among industrialized countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some experts say the NRA, one of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington, is largely responsible for the gun violence epidemic across the US.