'For it to happen in our backyard is definitely shocking' - Kiwi on US mass shooting

Maryland police officers block the intersection at the building entrance after multiple people were shot at the Capital Gazette newspaper offices in Annapolis this morning. Photo / AP

A New Zealander living in the United States says he is in shock at a mass shooting which took place near his wife's work and claimed the life of a reporter he knew.

Jason Currie witnessed police rushing to the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland, USA, where five staff were shot dead by a gunman overnight.

Currie, who lives in Maryland with his family, said: "You didn't know what was going on. [I was] driving down the road on just a street not too far from home

"Police cars started coming up behind me. There were probably 20 of them. Twenty to 30 of them, continual … I'd never seen anything like it."

The shooting took place next to a shopping mall where the family go frequently. And Currie's wife works two buildings away from the Gazette.

"She has two offices and she luckily wasn't there today, she was at the other office five or ten minutes away," he said.

The family was once interviewed by one of the slain reporters, Wendi Winters.

A police officer pulls crime scene tape into place after the shooting. Photo / AP

"She came to our house, sat down at the kitchen table. My daughter was in a Broadway tour that went 'round the country a couple of years ago.

"And right before she went on tour Wendi Winters came over and interviewed me … and our daughter.

"To see her name come over the lines on CNN was just shocking.

"Unfortunately it's becoming common in this country. But for it to happen in our backyard is definitely shocking."

The gunman has been identified as Jarrod Ramos. NBC reported that he had previously sued the Gazette for defamation.

The paper had received death threats on social media ahead of the shooting.

Winters was the special publications editor. Also killed were writer John McNamara, editorial page editor Gerard Fischman, sales assistant Rebecca Smith, and assistant editor and columnist Rob Hiaasen.

Journalists at the Gazette covered the mass shooting that unfolded in their office and continued working to put out a Friday paper.