(Image source from: CJME.com)

A man accused of killing five people with a shot gun, including a veteran journalist at a Maryland newspaper was charged with multiple counts of murder on Friday.

In one of deadliest attacks on journalists in the United States history, police identified the suspect as a 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, from Laurel, west of Annapolis. In Anne Arundel County criminal court, he faces five counts of first degree murder where a bail hearing was expected at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, according to report by The Capital Gazette newspaper group.

Against The Capital Gazette newspaper Ramos had a long grievance and in 2012 he unsuccessfully sued it for calumny over a news article that reported how he harassed an unnamed woman, court records showed.

He is accused of entering the Capital Gazette office on Thursday afternoon with a legally purchased pump-action shotgun and opening fire through a glass door, hunting for victims.

Four journalists and a sales assistant were shot and killed, police said.

On Friday, The Capital newspaper published an edition on its front page with photographs of each of the victims with a headline "5 shot dead at The Capital", while the editorial page was left empty with a note saying that they were speechless.

The employees of the newspaper were seen working on laptops in a parking garage, to produce Friday's edition, through pictures that were widely spread on social media.

A defamation lawsuit was filed by Ramos in 2012 against a former staff writer of Capital Gazette Eric Hartlry for writing an article contended that Ramos had harassed a woman on social media and that he had pleaded guilty to criminal harassment.

Based on public records the court agreed the article was faithful. However, Maryland's second-highest court in 2015 upheld the ruling, rejecting Ramo's suit.

Within a minute of the shooting Authorities responded to the scene, and Ramos was arrested while as well hiding under a desk with the shotgun on the floor nearby, police said.

The New York City and Baltimore had tightened the security outside major media outlets as a precaution.

Capital Gazette is one of the oldest newspapers in the United States, that runs various newspapers out of its Annapolis office.

By Sowmya Sangam