The scene in Annapolis mixed the mundane with the grotesque.
The office building that held the Capital Gazette was ringed by emergency vehicles of every type: police cars, fire trucks, ambulances and a mobile command center or two. Helicopters whirled over ahead while police officers in tactical vests and even camouflage milled about off in the distance
The building, across the street from a popular shopping mall, could have been anywhere the the United States from Annapolis, Maryland to Yuma, Arizona. It held a variety of professional offices. There were banks with a drive through in windows both in front of the offices and across the service street that led into its parking lot.
The media nestled in a small bank of grass next to the shopping mall in front of a strip mall that advertised a “psychotherapeutics services” offices. A long row of camera crews stretched nearly a block with reporters from all over the world speaking in several different languages.
(CNN) Five people were killed Thursday and several injured in a shooting at the Capital Gazette building in Annapolis, Maryland, authorities said.
A gunman opened fire through the glass door of the newsroom, Phil Davis, a Capital Gazette police reporter, tweeted shortly after the shooting.
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
"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.
A white male has been taken into custody and is being interviewed, Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Ryan Frashure said. Authorities do not yet know what the motive for the shooting might be.
Two law enforcement sources said the the suspect's fingerprints appear to have been altered, making it difficult to identify him that way. He was identified using facial recognition software, according to one law enforcement source.
Law enforcement officials told CNN police were searching an address associated with the suspect, who is in his 30s.
The suspect was found hiding under a desk in the building, Anne Arundel County Executive Steven Schuh told CNN.
The man initially refused to cooperate, a law enforcement source said told CNN. He had no identification when he was apprehended and FBI found no information immediately in the system, the source said.
They believe he had some interaction with an executive at the newspaper previously, one of the sources said. The source cautioned that is preliminary information, and the investigation is just beginning.
Police respond to the scene of the shooting.
Authorities also recovered what they believed to be an explosive device from the scene, said deputy Anne Arundel County chief Bill Krampf. He said he didn't anticipate finding any more explosives.
'Like a war zone'
Schuh said authorities responded to the shooting with "60 seconds."
"They went immediately into that building without a moment's hesitation and demonstrated incredible courage," he said. "It could have been a lot worse."
An employee on lockdown in a nearby building said responding officers "were hustling." Authorities evacuated about 170 people from the building, which is also home to other businesses and doctors' offices, Frashure said.
Daria McMiller, who works as an administrative assistant in a building next to the Capital Gazette building, says she was very impressed with the police response.
McMiller says she and her coworkers didn't hear any shots but they heard authorities yelling and saw police, FBI, state troopers and SWAT swarming to the scene.
"Some of them were still in civilian clothes and they were pulling their vests on as they ran towards the building," she said.
Four of the dead were killed at the scene; a fifth person, who was shot in the upper body and arm, died at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Schuh said.
In an interview with the Baltimore Sun , Davis, the reporter, said the newsroom "was like a war zone".
"I'm a police reporter. I write about this stuff -- not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death -- all the time," he said. "But as much as I'm going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don't know until you're there and you feel helpless."
'A newspaper we live with every day'
Susan O'Brien, a spokesperson for the city of Annapolis, said the publication "is a newspaper we live with every day."
"Our hearts are with the family," she told CNN.
Earlier, Hogan tweeted he was "absolutely devastated to learn of this tragedy in Annapolis."
"Devastating. My heart is with Capital Gazette and the people of Annapolis right now," Maryland Senator Ben Cardin tweeted.
Police responding to the shooting at the Capital Gazette.
Capital Gazette Communications publishes multiple newspapers, including the Capital and the Maryland Gazette.
The Capital is one of America's oldest newspapers, beginning life as the Evening Capital in 1884.
The company that publishes it started in 1727 with the Maryland Gazette. In 1767, Anne Catharine Green became the first female newspaper publisher in the country and the Maryland Gazette fought the stamp tax that started the American Revolution.
For many decades, there were two papers that served the region -- The Maryland Gazette, a weekly, and the Evening Capital, a daily.
In 1981, The Evening Capital became The Capital. And in 1994, the company that owned it launched one of the first newspaper websites in the US with CapitalOnline.com.
Today, The Capital serves Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and Kent Island. It has a daily readership of about 67,000 and a Sunday readership of 83,000, according to the Baltimore Sun Group, which owns it.
'We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow'
I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow. — Chase Cook (@chaseacook) June 28, 2018
Gazette reporters said their staff is small, and they are determined not to let the shooting deter them from their doing their jobs. Despite the shooting, they still planned to publish a paper Thursday night.
Multiple newsroom staffers, plus reporters from The Baltimore Sun, are working on stories for Friday's edition.
"The Capital is not a big newsroom. There are about 20 news staffers, a few more advertising. We are close. We are family. I am devastated," tweeted Danielle Ohl, a reporter.
"I can tell you this: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow," another reporter Chase Cook tweeted.
At least five people were killed and several others were “gravely injured” in a shooting Thursday afternoon at the Capital Gazette in Anne Arundel County, authorities said.
A shooter is in custody, police said. Police would not name the suspect, but said he was a Maryland resident in his late 30s and had specifically targeted the Capital.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf. “This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people.”
Police said a “long gun” was used in the incident, but did not specify which kind. They said officers did not exchange gunfire with the suspect, who was now being interrogated. They said officers had recovered “smoke grenades” used by the suspect in the building, located at 888 Bestgate Road. About 170 people were inside at the time of the shooting, police said.
The Capital Gazette is owned by The Baltimore Sun.
Phil Davis, a Capital Gazette crime reporter who was in the building at the time of the shooting, said multiple people were shot, as others — himself included — hid under their desks. He said there was a lone male gunman.
“Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can’t say much more and don’t want to declare anyone dead, but it’s bad,” Davis wrote on Twitter as he waited to be interviewed by police.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.”
In a subsequent interview, Davis said it “was like a war zone” inside the newspaper’s offices — a situation that would be “hard to describe for a while.”
A shooting has occurred at the Capital Gazette in Anne Arundel County, a paper that is owned by The Baltimore Sun, according to reports from Gazette staff.
“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time,” he said. “But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”
Davis said he and others were still hiding under their desks when the shooter stopped firing. Police then arrived and surrounded the shooter, Davis said.
Authorities said police responded to the scene within a minute. "If they were not there as quickly as they were it could have been a lot worse," Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said.
The attacker had mutilated his fingers in an apparent attempt to make it harder to identify him, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Krampf said he had no such information. Krampf said police had identified threats to the Capital made on social media as recently as Thursday, and were trying to identify their source.
Officials at Maryland Shock Trauma Center confirmed the hospital was treating at least one victim. County Executive Steve Schuh said others were being treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center. Loren Farquhar, a medical center spokeswoman, said the hospital received two patients, both with minor injuries not from gunfire. One was discharged and another is expected to be discharged soon, she said.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene in Annapolis to provide support to local law enforcement, said Amanda Hils, a spokeswoman for the federal agency.
President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that he had been briefed on the shooting. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene,” Trump wrote.
Josh McKerrow, a photographer for 14 years at The Capital, had covered Induction Day at the Naval Academy at sunrise Thursday. He was driving home to celebrate his daughter’s birthday when Capital editor Rick Hutzell called him from out of town.
“He said he’d heard there had been a shooting, and he couldn't get in touch with anyone in the newsroom,” McKerrow said. Then he heard sirens. “My heart sank and I knew.”
Police in SWAT gear and with assault rifles cordoned off the area round the newsroom and shutdown Bestgate Road. Outside the police tape, McKerrow and reporter Chase Cook called and texted their friends and colleagues, trying to get answers.
Jimmy DeButts, an editor at the Capital Gazette, wrote on Twitter that he was “devastated and heartbroken.” He said he could not speak about the shooting, but praised the work of his newspaper.
“There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays — just a passion for telling stories from our community,” DeButts wrote. “We keep doing more with less. We find ways to cover high school sports, breaking news, tax hikes, school budgets & local entertainment. We are there in times of tragedy. We do our best to share the stories of people, those who make our community better. Please understand, we do all this to serve our community.”
Gov. Larry Hogan, on Twitter, wrote, “Absolutely devastated to learn of this tragedy in Annapolis.” He said he was in contact with Schuh, and that Maryland State Police were on the scene assisting county police.
House Speaker Michael E. Busch has represented Annapolis since 1987 and said The Capital is “the voice of the community.”
Even with a shrinking staff, Busch said, “they knew the pulse of the community and had a lot of influence on what took place.
“This is a shocker,” Busch said. “Over the years, a lot of these people become friends. They do their job, you do your job, and you respect them for it. A lot of good writers have come out of there.”
The Gazette is not the only business in the building where the shooting occurred. There are 30 tenants in the building, including five others on the first floor with The Capital. They include accountants, lawyers, financial and medical offices. The newspaper has been in the building since 2015, according to CoStar, a real estate information company. They have 5,000 square feet of offices.
Aaron Smith and Randall Fisher of the Fisher Law Office were on the fourth floor in the same building as the Gazette at the time of the shooting. They didn't hear or see anything and didn't know anything was going on until Smith received a text from a colleague saying there was an apparent shooting, he said.
They flipped a desk over in front of the door to the office and stayed there until SWAT officers arrived. They then walked out of the building with their hands on their heads, like everyone else in the building, Fisher said.
Bethany Clasing, who works in second floor of the building, said she heard a single gunshot and then heard the police yell, “Get down! Get down! Don't move!”
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Five people were killed Thursday afternoon in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md., and several others were “gravely injured,” said William Krampf, acting chief of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Investigators identified the suspect, an adult male, using facial recognition technology, according to a law enforcement official. The suspect’s name has not been released.
The suspect is in custody and is being questioned, said Steve Schuh, the county executive, and there was no information on motive as of late Thursday afternoon. Mr. Schuh said the gunman was found hiding under a table. He used a shotgun in the attack, according to another law enforcement official.
“We did recover what we thought may have been an explosive device,” Mr. Krampf said at a news conference. “That has been taken care of. We have members of the bomb squad on scene. We don’t anticipate having any more explosive devices.” More than 170 people were in the building at the time, he said.
