Politics

Trump To Lower Flags To Half-Staff After Capital Gazette Shooting

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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President Donald Trump will shortly issue a presidential proclamation lowering flags to half-staff to honor the memory of journalists recently killed at the Annapolis Capital Gazette.

The Capital Gazette newsroom suffered a mass shooting Thursday when an aggrieved  gunman fired multiple shotgun blasts through their door. He has now been charged with five counts of first-degree murder.

The gunman had a storied history with the newspaper, with multiple failed attempts to sue it for defamation. The Capital Gazette wrote a story about the gunman’s continued harassment of a woman online and in-person, which eventually led to him losing his job for the federal government. He wrote a series of threatening letters to the paper and engaged in other troubling behavior ahead of the shooting.

Trump previously addressed the shooting at a recent White House appearance saying “journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs.”