Former Supervisor John Stirrup collapses at board meeting

Updated 1 p.m. April 19 — Former Gainesville District Supervisor John Stirrup collapsed at tonight’s Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting on April 18, 2023.

According to sources, Stirrup, who is running for the House of Delegates District 21 seat in Haymarket, was rushed to Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, where he’s lying in intensive care.

His condition has improved, according to a post on his Facebook page.

John is now feeling much better, resting and even telling a few dad jokes to the hospital staff. He and Heidi are incredibly grateful for the first responders, medical team, and all those who have reached out and offered prayers and support.

Fire and rescue crews resuscitated Stirrup at the board meeting before loading him by stretcher onto an ambulance. Stirrup was speaking during public comment time, talking about the county’s violent crime rate, which has increased 70% since 2019, and the jail board’s abolishment of the 287(g) program, which had county jail officers partner with federal immigration and customs authorities to hand over jail inmates suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair At-large Ann Wheeler called a meeting recess until 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2023. Supervisors were in the public comment portion o the meeting and then were to engage in budget markup when leaders were to decide what to cut from the fiscal year 2024 budget.

After returning from recess, County Executive Christopher Shorter said, “What we witnessed here tonight was a medical emergency. The response from our first responders here was amazing.”

Stirrup, a conservative, served on the Board of County Supervisors for two terms from 2004 until 2011. Stirrup left the county government and later lobbied on its behalf.

Stirrup has a Republican challenger in Josh Quill, who is also seeking the party’s nomination in a June 20 Primary.

Here’s a transcript of Stirrup’s speech, delivered just before he collapsed:

Leadership, transparency, and common sense public policy have been lacking at the board for quite some time. Recently, Chief Newsom, police Chief Newsom came and presented to the board about the increase in crime in the county.

I place the increase in crime squarely on the five Democrats that sit on the board. I call it the trifecta of failure. The first leg of the trifecta is defund the police. Defund the police.

Now, I recognize that perhaps not any of the Democrats on the board have actually said that statement publicly. However, you own it, your party owns it. And it’s the major reason that many jurisdictions throughout this country do not have the full compliment of their sworn police officers.

It’s because they know that their elected officials do not have their back. The second leg of the trifecta of failure is Commonwealth’s attorneys and prosecutors who operate what I call a catch and release program.

Now, that’s not a bad policy if you happen to be a bass fisherman, but it’s a terrible and tragic policy if you’re dealing with criminals and putting the public at risk.

And then the third and final leg of the trifecta is your abandonment of the 287(g) program. When I served on the board, I initiated this program, this partnership with the US. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ice, and we worked with Ice, where the program every suspect arrested post arrest would be asked the question if they were here in this country illegally.

The vast majority admitted it immediately. Once that was determined, that information would be transported to Ice. They’d make the determination based on the crime or the severity of crime or the numbers of crimes that this individual committed, whether they would be deported after completing their sentence.

In the US. From 2007 to 2019, we did that thousands of times. Thousands. And crime dropped dramatically in this county in 2019. The majority of the board switched from the Republicans to the Democrats. And you chose not to renew the program.