John Stone, Jefferson County Sheriff during Columbine shooting, dies
Former Jefferson County Sheriff and County Commissioner John Stone has died, the sheriff's office said. He was 73.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office confirmed the news Sunday, as first reported by the Denver Post.
"John's daughter called me this morning with the sad news," Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader told CBS News Colorado. "I worked with and for John when he was a county commissioner and then when he served one term as sheriff. In all the years I knew him, he was a kind and caring man who loved his family deeply. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends."
Stone was sheriff in Jefferson County during the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
Prior to that, he was a county commissioner, representing District 3 in Jefferson County from 1987 to 1999. He served three terms, having been reelected twice.
"During those 12 years, he was a strong supporter of transportation improvements, particularly new roads, bridges and interchanges in the fast-growing south part of the county," according to a biography page on the county's website. "He also supported the construction of five new public libraries, the acquisition of nearly 17,000 acres of Open Space land, and the development of the Government Center Campus and its facilities to house county government offices."
He served as a police officer for six years in California on the Palo Alto police force and for 13 years with the Lakewood Police Department here in Colorado. He also served as president of the Bancroft Fire Protection District from 1982 to 1987, according to the county.
Stone was originally from Michigan. He died Sunday morning in hospice care in Minnesota, the Denver Post reported.
His overseeing of the Columbine shooting remains controversial and he was criticized heavily at the time, although lessons learned from the massacre have helped shape modern active shooter response protocols used by many law enforcement agencies around the world today.
He's been criticized for not ordering officers into the school to stop the shooters and end their rampage.
In a letter from 2001, Stone described the Columbine attack as a "unique set of circumstances, the magnitude of which no one had dealt with before," CBS News reported at the time. He also cited some of the obstacles that kept his men from entering the building right away - including bombs, booby traps, and a lack of information about how many gunmen were in the school.
In his letter, Stone said that by taking positions around the building and waiting for SWAT teams to arrive, his officers were doing what they were trained to do. He said his officers "responded quickly, returned fire, deployed appropriately and safely extracted hundreds of trapped and terrified students and teachers."
Stone was further criticized when news broke later that year that he allowed TIME Magazine access to the shooters' home videos prior to showing families of the victims, CBS News reported at the time. This, and several similar instances of the sheriff's office releasing materials before speaking to the families, put the parties at odds.
"They should have shown us these tapes so that we could be prepared to see this," said Michael Shoels, whose son Isaiah was one of the 12 students gunned down. "They don't know how this would have overtook some of us parents."
Stone faced a recall as sheriff, but it failed. He ultimately decided not to run for reelection as sheriff.
Stone is survived by his wife; a daughter, Lori Babcock; brothers Jerry and Steven; a sister, Pat Ulicki; two stepsons and a stepdaughter; and two grandsons. He was preceded in death by a son, Brian; and his parents, Elvon and Norma Stone, the Post reported.
