US man pleads guilty in Maryland newspaper shooting

Washington: A US man, accused of fatally shooting five staffers at a newspaper in Annapolis, capital of Maryland last year, pleaded guilty on Monday.

At a court in Annapolis, Jarrod Ramos, 39, admitted to a judge that he had committed those offences.

Judge Laura Ripken, who accepted Ramos' plea Monday afternoon, said that she determined that Ramos "freely, knowingly and voluntarily" waived his right to a jury trial to determine his guilt or innocence.

A jury is expected to hear testimony in coming weeks about whether Ramos was not responsible by reason of insanity.

Ramos stormed the Capital Gazette newsroom with a shotgun on 28 June, 2018, killing four journalists and a sales assistant in an attack that authorities said was motivated by a long-standing grudge.

It was one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in US history.