Trump declines mayor's request to lower flags in honor of Capital Gazette shooting victims

(Image credit: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)

The mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, said on Monday he's "disappointed" that President Trump rejected his request to lower U.S. flags in memory of the five Capital Gazette newspaper employees shot and killed last week.

"Is there a cutoff for tragedy?" Mayor Gavin Buckley asked. "This was an attack on the press. It was an attack on freedom of speech. It's just as important as any other tragedy." After other mass shootings, including the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Trump has ordered flags lowered.

Buckley put in his request to the White House over the weekend, and told The Baltimore Sun he wanted to keep national attention on what happened in his town. He also said he was going to lower flags in Annapolis anyway, but his wife urged him not to do it. "At this point in time, it would start to polarize people and I don't want to make people angry," he said. On Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) ordered the Maryland flag lowered in the state until Monday evening.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.