Major League Baseball

Schilling cites false rumor to rip Obama in wake of Tennessee massacre

Published Jul. 21, 2015 3:28 a.m. ET

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As more details emerge from last week’s shooting rampage in Chattanooga, Tenn., in which a gunman shot and killed five U.S. servicemen before being killed by police, one aspect that has many people outraged pertains to the American flag.

More specifically, a growing number of people question President Barack Obama’s lack of presidential order to lower the flag to half-staff around the country, an order given in the wake of recent tragedies such as the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 and the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.

While it is true that Obama has made no such proclamation to date for the Chattanooga shootings, one rumor that has been circulating through social media that is not true is that Obama ordered flags flown at half-staff following the death of singer Whitney Houston in 2012. That rumor was discredited, with outlets such as CNN and Snopes.com confirming Monday that New Jersey governor Chris Christie ordered his state’s flags flown at half-staff after Houston’s death, but Obama never did.

Nonetheless, on Monday former MLB star pitcher Curt Schilling tweeted his disbelief that Obama would give the honor to Houston but not the Chattanooga victims.

Numerous people tweeted to Schilling that Obama never made the Houston order, but based on Schilling’s replies, as of 3 a.m. ET Tuesday, the 2001 World Series co-MVP has yet to issue a retraction or in any way note that the basis of his original tweet was a disproven rumor.

In various tweets, he challenged whether the Houston order was a rumor, seemed surprised that it was not true and avoided the issue of who issued the order when addressing other questions in the tweet.

Last Thursday, 24-year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez went on a shooting rampage beginning at a military recruiting station, firing at the doors and windows without ever exiting his vehicle, then drove to a naval reserve center where he crashed through a gate before reportedly shooting into offices before engaging Chattanooga police in a firefight. He wounded one person in the initial shooting before killing four Marines and wounding a police officer at the reserve center. Police then shot and killed Abdulazeez at the reserve center.

A fifth person, a Navy sailor, died two days later.

H/t: CNN

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