Update 2: The suspect in the deadly shooting at a Maryland newspaper on Thursday has been identified as 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos of Laurel, Maryland according to CBS News. He was reportedly carrying fake grenades, smoke bombs and flash bang devices in his backpack.

Jarrod Ramos, 38, is suspected in the fatal shooting of five people at a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

Krampf said officials discovered what they thought was an explosive device in the building, which has been "taken care of." He said he didn't expect to recover more devices. Police said they have evacuated and cleared the building but are still continuing to process it for evidence. Over 170 people were safely escorted out of the building, Krampf said. They were brought to a re-unification center that had been set up at a nearby mall. -CBS News

Ramos had a long-running feud with the Annapolis Capital newspaper, according to the Baltimore Sun, citing law enforcement sources.

In 2012, Ramos filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper and a columnist over a July 2011 story that covered a criminal harassment case against him. He brought the suit against the columnist, Eric Hartley, naming Capital Gazette Communications and Thomas Marquardt, the paper’s former editor and publisher, as defendants. -Baltimore Sun

More:

According to an unreported 2015 opinion filed in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, Ramos pleaded guilty to criminal harassment in July 2011. Five days later, an article about the case appeared in The Capital, one of Capital Gazette's publications. The story detailed accusations by a woman who said Ramos harassed her online and off for months, calling her employer and trying to get her fired. The woman eventually went to the police and Ramos pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment in 2011. -WIVB

The Sun notes that a Twitter page in Ramos' name featured Hartley's picture as its avatar.

Several screencaps reveal that Ramos harbored deep hatred for both the newspaper and officials from the publication.

Additionally, Ramos reportedly had a record dating back to 2012.

And in perhaps the most intriguing twist, the following image has been circulating - and is, as yet unconfirmed - that appears to show Jarrod Ramos' father worked for The NSA...

(h/t @almostjingo)

* * *

Update 1: Despite his efforts to conceal his identity by "mutilating" his hands to destroy his own fingerprints, the suspect accused of killing 5 people in the newsroom of the the Capital Gazette has been identified as a 39-year-old Maryland man.

He was identified using facial recognition technology, and local authorities are executing a search warrant on his home, NBC News reported, citing multiple senior law enforcement officials. And in a report that echoed the last assault on an American journalist - where a disgruntled former employee murdered one of his former colleagues on camera at a CBS affiliate in Virginia - CNN said the shooter had "previous interactions" with the newspaper.

No other information - such as his name - has been released or reported.

* * *

In a second briefing giving at 8 pm ET Thursday, Krampf said the shooting was a "targeted attack on the Capital Gazette." He added that threats against the paper had been made over social media, possibly by the suspect, though the threats didn't appear to have been directed at a specific individual. The acting police chief also refuted reports about the shooter mutilating his fingerprints, as well as rumors that the shooter was identified using facial-recognition technology (those reports were brought to the public by NBC and CNN, respectively). Krampf confirmed that the suspect used a shotgun during the attack as he stormed the front entrance of the newsroom.

"We have no knowledge at all that he was targeting anyone specific at the Capital," but recent threats indicating violence had been made on social media against the paper in general, Krampf said.

He also reminded reporters that many members of the department have personal relationships with the reporters at the paper.

"We interact with the Capital newspaper daily. We have friends at the Capital newspaper. We speak with the men and women at this paper daily. We're here, we're invested and we're going to get this investigation right, and we're going to come back and give you credible immigration," Krampf said.

The police said they don't anticipate holding another conference until Friday morning.

Unconfirmed reports from NBC identified 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, who unsuccessfully tried to sue the Capital Gazette for defamation in 2012 as the shooter. A story published in the Gazette about the case showed that it made it all the way to the state's second-highest court, which upheld an earlier decision to dismiss. During the case, Ramos represented himself. The motivations for the lawsuit weren't made clear.

* * *

Five people have been killed and several others were "gravely injured" during a shooting Thursday afternoon in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette, according to Anne Arundel County Acting Police Chief William Krampf.

Krampf said during a press briefing Thursday evening that the shooter is in custody, but declined to offer any information about his identity, or the type of weapon used. The shooter was described as a "white male in his 20s" and several media outlets report that he used a shotgun during the attack.

An official told The Associated Press the shooting suspect is not cooperating with investigators, and as AP adds, the shooter "found a way to obscure his fingerprints" - while the AP adds he mutilated his fingerprints.

BREAKING: Law enforcement official: Suspect in newspaper shooting mutilated fingers in possible effort to thwart identification. — The Associated Press (@AP) June 28, 2018

However according to NBC the suspect has been identified via use of facial recognition technology, and local authorities are executing search warrant on his home.

While thousands of people offered their condolences on Twitter, Phil Davis, a Capital Gazette crime reporter who was in the building at the time of the shooting, offered some of the first information about the shooting in a series of tweets sent while he was waiting to be interviewed by police.

"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."

A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead. — Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

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. — Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload — Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

I'm currently waiting to be interviewed by police, so I'm safe and no longer at the office. — Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

Ok, I was not tweeting from under my desk. I was already safe when I started tweeting — Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

In a subsequent interview, Davis told the Baltimore Sun (which owns the Gazette) that the shooting was like "a war zone" inside the newspaper’s offices, and that the situation 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 traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless."

Davis said he didn't know why the shooter stopped firing, but that police arrived and quickly had him surrounded. Police said they 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.

In response to the shooting, the New York Police Department said it would dispatch police to the offices of media organizations around the city.

While the total number of wounded isn't yet known, Arminta Plater, a spokeswoman for a hospital near the newspaper, told the Associated Press that two patients had arrived there but she did not know their conditions.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department said that the shooting was reported at about 3:15 pm ET, when the department got the call about an "active shooter" at 888 Bestgate Road - the address of the paper's offices. Agents from the ATF also responded to the scene.

President Donald Trump tweeted that his "thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families" and thanked all of the first responders who were currently on the scene.

Prior to departing Wisconsin, I was briefed on the shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. 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. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2018

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has also issued a response:

Absolutely devastated to learn of this tragedy in Annapolis. I am in contact with County Executive Steve Schuh, and @MDSP is on the scene assisting @AACOPD. Please, heed all warnings and stay away from the area. Praying for those at the scene and for our community. https://t.co/bI6PdUjHfh — Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) June 28, 2018

While police haven't released a motive (or even a name), some people have begun to point fingers at pundit Milo Yiannapolous, who told The Observer "I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight”

Yesterday, Milo Yiannapolous urged people to shoot and kill journalists. Today, multiple journalists at the Capital Gazette newspaper in #Annapolis were murdered. — Nathan Lean (@nathanlean) June 28, 2018

Police said they'd deliver another briefing on the shooting later Thursday evening.

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