Sandy Hook Was a Hoax!': Former Baseball Star Backtracks After Tweet About Horrific School Shooting

A retired Atlanta Braves player has apologized after tweeting last week that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 students and six staff members dead in December 2012 was a "hoax."

"So the FBI comes out and confirms that Sandy Hook was a hoax! Where is the outrage?" wrote former third baseman Chipper Jones in a now-deleted tweet. "What else are we being lied to about? Waco? JFK? Pfff..."

Jones later apologized to his followers, though the controversy hasn't quite ended.

"My apologies for my Sandy Hook tweet [yesterday]. I had heard something from someone which I thought to be credible and tweeted w/out researching," he tweeted Saturday. "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."

It's no surprise that Jones reversed course, considering that the FBI has never backed conspiracy theorists' proclamations that Sandy Hook was a hoax — and their claims have, in fact, been debunked repeatedly.

There was also emotional and instantaneous reaction from the daughter of one of the victims who was killed in the December 14, 2012 attack.

Cristina Hassinger, 30, whose mother, principal Dawn Hochsprung, died that day, tweeted back at Jones that she'd be more than happy to prove to him that the horrific event unfolded, according to the New York Daily News.

"Come for dinner. You can meet my grandmother-less children and I'll show you my mom's cloths riddled with bullet holes," Hassinger tweeted.

She later told the New York Daily News that Sandy Hook truthers — those individuals who deny that the event unfolded — have harassed the families of the slain over the past two years, noting her disappointment that Jones would disseminate information backing their cause.

"For more than two years now, my family and the other families of Sandy Hook have been dealing with conspiracy theorists," Hassinger said. "They harass us, saying it was all a hoax. They accuse us of being in on the hoax a lot of the time."

She said that the former baseball player's apology wasn't enough and that he ushered in newfound harassment for the families of those killed in the horrific shooting, inviting Jones to visit a website setup to honor the lives lost so that he could learn more about the victims.

TheBlaze penned a point-by-point debunk of conspiracy theorists' claims not long after the attack unfolded.

(H/T: Daily Mail)