A Maryland man believed responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in US history has been charged with five counts of first degree murder.

Police described the shooting by a lone gunman on a newspaper office in the US city of Annapolis, Maryland, that killed five people and wounded two as a “targeted attack”.

They said the alleged shooter, named by local law enforcement sources as Jarrod W Ramos, 38, “looked for his victims” as he walked into the offices of the Capital Gazette on Friday morning (Thursday 2.30pm local time), throwing smoke grenades as he fired at staff who scrambled under their desks.

Police told US media they believed the suspect held a grudge against the paper.

“He had some kind of conflict with the paper in general,” Anne Arundel County Police spokesperson Lieutenant Ryan Frashure said.

Shooting suspect Jarrod Ramos. Photo: Anne Arundel Police Department

In the wake of the shooting, US President Donald Trump, known for his hostile relationship with the media, made an uncharacteristic and heartfelt statement defending the rights of journalists.

“This attack shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief, he said at the White House of Friday afternoon local time.

“Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.”

Before going any further today, I want to address the horrific shooting that took place yesterday at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. This attack shocked the conscience of our Nation, and filled our hearts with grief… pic.twitter.com/LALXGhk04b

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2018

Mr Ramos appeared via video link at the Anne Arundel County criminal court on Saturday morning (Friday afternoon local time) where a judge charged him with five counts of first degree murder and ordered he be held without bail.

USA Today reported the suspect sued the paper for defamation in 2012 over a story that claimed he had harassed a woman online. The case was thrown out by the judge.

Anne Arundel County Acting Police Chief William Krampf told reporters the suspect was a Maryland resident and warrants had been sought to search his home.

“This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm,” Chief Krampf said.

Police say the attack followed a series of social media threats against paper.

At a news conference, Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare said the newspaper previously decided not to press charges against Mr Ramos out of fear it would exacerbate the situation.

Capital Gazette staff worked throughout the night to produce a newspaper the day following the shooting, with the opinion page intentionally left blank as a heartbreaking tribute to the five employees who lost their lives.

“Today, we are speechless,” the newspaper wrote. “This page is intentionally left blank to commemorate victims of Thursday’s shootings at our office.”

Tomorrow this Capital page will return to its steady purpose of offering readers informed opinion about the world around them. But today, we are speechless. pic.twitter.com/5HzKN2IW7Q

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

‘Nothing more terrifying’

Capital Gazette reporter Phil Davis, who was inside the building when the shooter opened fire, tweeted that the gunman shot through a glass door into the newspaper’s newsroom.

“A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead,” he tweeted.

“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” he added.

About 170 people were inside at the time of the shooting, police said, and streets surrounding the crime scene remained shut off to traffic for several hours.

Authorities said police responded to the incident within a minute and engaged with the suspected shooter without an exchange of gunfire, before arresting him.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department posted on Facebook five hours later that the alleged shooter was in custody and his name would be released “at a later time”.

Law enforcement officials say the suspect mutilated his fingers in an apparent attempt to make it harder to identify him. Investigators resorted to facial recognition technology to identify him.

The shooting comes amid months of verbal and online attacks on the “fake news media” from politicians including US President Donald Trump prompted New York City police to immediately tighten security at news organisations.

NYPD Sergeant Brendan Ryan refused to elaborate on the patrols for security reasons, but told Associated Press officers have been deployed in and around the city at various media outlets out of an “abundance of caution”.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said: “There is no room for violence, and we stick by that. Violence is never tolerated in any form, no matter whom it is against.”

Annapolis’ Australian-raised mayor Gavin Buckley told reporters that it could have been “a lot worse”.

Perth-raised Mayor Buckley, 55, elected last year, described Thursday’s shooting in the Capital Gazette newsroom as a “horrible event”.

“If they were not there as quickly as they were it could have been a lot worse.”

‘Like a war zone’

The newspaper is part of Capital Gazette Communications, which also publishes the Maryland Gazette and CapitalGazette.com.

In an interview with The Capital Gazette‘s online site, Davis said it “was like a war zone” inside the newspaper’s offices – 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.”

Staff photographer Paul Gillespie, who was inside editing photos, told The Baltimore Sun newspaper (which owns the Capital Gazette) the shooter walked straight past him as he continued on his deadly rampage.

He hid under a colleague’s desk as he heard one person yell out “No!” before a shot was fired: “I was curled up, trying not to breathe, trying not to make a sound, and he shot people all around me.”

“I dove under that desk as fast as I could, and by the grace of God, he didn’t look over there.”

“I kept thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to die. I can’t believe this.’” Gillespie said.

“I feel like I should be helping to cover it … but I’m a mess.”