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Shooter kills 5 at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md.

A Maryland man was charged with multiple counts of murder on Friday, a day after police say he rampaged through a newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun and killed five people in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.

Jarrod Ramos, 38, from Laurel, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Annapolis, faces five counts of first degree murder in Anne Arundel County criminal court where a bail hearing was expected at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) Friday, The Capital Gazette newspaper group reported.

Authorities have not released the identity of the suspect, but online court records showed a man by the same name was charged with five counts of murder on Friday. Ramos had a long-standing grudge against the newspaper, and unsuccessfully sued for defamation in 2012, court records showed.

Ramos is accused of entering the Capital Gazette office on Thursday afternoon and opening fire through a glass door, hunting for victims and spraying the newsroom with gunfire as reporters hid under their desks and begged for help on social media, police and witnesses said.

Rob Hiaasen, 59, Wendi Winters, 65, Rebecca Smith, 34, Gerald Fischman, 61, and John McNamara were shot and killed. All were journalists except for Smith who was a sales assistant, said William Krampf, acting chief of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. (Reuters)

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