Police ramp up presence at media organizations

Police in Boston, New York and Chicago dispatched patrols to major media organizations in their cities in the wake of yesterday’s mass shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.

“We are directing patrols to areas around newspapers,” Sgt. Detective John Boyle, a Boston police spokesman, said. “But we’ve received no information about specific threats.”

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the suspect in the newspaper shooting has been identified as Jarrod W. Ramos.

Authorities told the Associated Press the shooter entered the building in a targeted attack and “looked for his victims.”

The New York Police Department also deployed counterterrorism teams to media organizations out of an abundance of caution, said John Miller, deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and intelligence.

Police could be seen outside The New York Times, ABC News and Fox News early last night, after a gunman opened fire at the Capital Gazette, killing five people and wounding at least three others. A police presence was not immediately visible outside the Boston Herald’s offices.

Like Boyle, Miller said the deployments were not based on any specific threats but the department was monitoring the events in Annapolis, where authorities said one suspect was in custody.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Jessica Rocco said officers there likewise would be “checking in” with local media outlets.