Shooting in US leaves at least 5 dead
A shooting left at least five people and several seriously wounded Thursday at the headquarters of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, authorities said, while in New York they have deployed anti-terrorist teams in some of the mainstream media as a precautionary measure. The authorities reported that they also recovered what they suspected could be an explosive device.
An adult man has been arrested in connection with the shooting and was subjected to questioning, confirmed Anne Arundel´s County Police Chief, William Krampf, at a press conference. Krampf described the one "long gun" used in the shooting. More than 170 people were evacuated from the building where the Capital Gazette is located, Krampf said.
Apparently, among the deceased, there are journalists from the Capital Gazette, as indicated in a GoFundMe campaign initiated this Thursday by reporter Madi Alexander.n"The newspaper reporters are reporting on the deaths of their own colleagues, please give what you can to help the Capital Gazette newsroom and its journalists, we want to do everything we can to help them pay the medical bills, the repairs of the newsroom and anything else that may arise from this terrible shooting," she said.
In New York, the police said they are "following up on #Annapolis reports, we have deployed anti-terrorism teams in media in New York, that deployment is not based on specific information about threats, but on a standard rule as a precaution," said the New York Police Department on Twitter.
The shooting was initially confirmed by Lt. Ryan Frashure, of the Anne Arundel´s County Police Department, on his Twitter account. "Active armed aggressor: 888 Bestgate Road #Annapolis. The media concentration area is 839 Bestgate Road," said Frashure. Phil Davis, a Capital Gazette reporter, was the person who reported the shooting and told The Baltimore Sun, owner of that media, that several people had been shot.
"A gunman went through the glass door into the office and opened fire on several employees. I can´t say more and I do not want to declare anyone dead, but what happened is bad", Davis wrote on Twitter. "There is nothing more frightening than hearing several people being shot while you are under your desk and then hearing that the gunman is reloading the gun," he said. Davis described the scene as "a war zone", a situation that would be "difficult to describe for a while."
"I am a reporter of events, I write about this, not necessarily in this sense, but in shootings and deaths, all the time, but as much as I try to articulate how traumatizing it is to hide under your desk, I would not know until I was there and feels powerless" he said, according to Capital Gazette.
Davis said he and others were still hiding under their desks when the assailant stopped firing. "I do not know why, I do not know why it stopped", he stated. The police then arrived and surrounded the aggressor, without giving further details. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said before leaving for Wisconsin that he was informed about the shooting and said his thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, said on Twitter that he was "absolutely devastated" to learn "of this tragedy in Annapolis."
