Chipper Jones apologizes for ’irresponsible’ tweet about Sandy Hook

Former Braves great Chipper Jones has more than 4,000 posts on his Twitter account. But there’s one he’d like to take back.

The retired third baseman apologized twice Saturday for a tweet he made a day earlier that questioned the 2012 Sandy Hook (Conn.) Elementary School shooting that claimed 26 lives, most of them children.

Jones, who retired from baseball in 2012 after a 19-year career in Atlanta, wrote on Twitter Friday: “So the FBI comes out and confirms that Sandy Hook was a hoax! Where’s the outrage? What else are we being lied to about? Waco? JFK? Pfff... ”

The tweet from “the real Twitter account of Chipper Jones” was deleted, but not before it was captured by several Twitter users. Jones’s account has 446,000 followers.

Jones apologized Saturday in two tweets, saying he “heard something from someone which I thought to be credible and tweeted w/out researching.” Jones also said, “It was irresponsible of me to do that and will not happen again. Please accept my heartfelt apology to those who were hurt or offended.”

The shooting occurred on Dec. 14, 2012 in Newtown, Conn., when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults, then shot and killed himself.

This story was originally published February 9, 2015 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Chipper Jones apologizes for ’irresponsible’ tweet about Sandy Hook."