Maryland shooting: Capital Gazette staff share harrowing messages after gunman opens fire in Annapolis newspaper building

At least five people were killed and others were injured

A reporter at the Maryland newspaper which was attacked by a gunman, leaving five people dead and others injured, revealed in detail how he hid under a desk as shots rang out.

Phil Davis, a crime reporter for the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, posted a series of tweets, explaining how he and others were in their office when the suspected shooter – said to be a lone male – entered and opened fire.

“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.

“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.”

As police rushed to the scene and apprehended a suspect, Mr Davis said he was interviewed by officers.

He clarified that he began tweeting after the incident was over, not while he was under his desk.

“I’m currently waiting to be interviewed by police, so I’m safe and no longer at the office,” he said. “Ok, I was not tweeting from under my desk. I was already safe when I started tweeting.”

Mr Davis subsequently told a reporter from his sister publication, the Baltimore Sun, that it was “like a war zone” inside the newspaper’s offices and was a situation that would be “hard to describe for a while”.

““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 traumatising it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”

(AP (AP)

He said that he was one of several of the daily newspaper’s staff still hiding under their desks when the firing stopped.“I don’t know why. I don’t know why he stopped,” he said.

Steven Schuh, County Executive of Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, later said at a press conference that five people had been killed and that the suspected gunman had been taken into custody. Officials said they were hunting for a possible motive.

The state’s governor, Larry Hogan, thanked police officers for the speed with which they responded to the incident.

“It’s a tragic situation. We don’t have all the details,” he told reporters. “We will leave it to the professionals to conduct their investigation.”

Reuters said that following the incident, police in Baltimore and New York City deployed protective forces to major media outlets as a precaution.

For now, the Annapolis shooting was being treated as a local incident and not one that involves terrorism, a law enforcement official said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is on the scene assisting local authorities, the official said.

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all that are affected,” she said. Mr Trump was aboard Air Force One, returning to Washington from an event in Wisconsin.

One law enforcement source told CBS News the suspect is a male in his 20s who had no identification on him. Two law enforcement sources told CBS News the suspect used a shotgun.

Police also went to the offices of the Baltimore Sun as a precaution, that paper reported.

The New York Police Department said it was beefing up security at New York-based news organisations as a precaution.

“We’re deploying units from our Critical Response Command to news outlets throughout New York City,” said Officer Andrew Lava, an NYPD spokesman. “There is no active threat at this time.”