A University of Virginia student and former football player has been taken into custody following an on-campus shooting that killed three players and injured two others Sunday night.
Police officials have confirmed at a press conference mid-morning Monday, Nov. 14 that Christopher Darnell Jones was under arrest. It’s unclear how he was captured or what motivated the mass shooting. Authorities arrested Jones more than an hour away from campus just before 11 a.m. Monday.
Authorities released information about the suspect’s vehicle in the early hours of the morning. UVA police issued a shelter-in-place warning that was lifted shortly before the arrest was announced.
“This is an unimaginably sad day for our community,” UVA president Jim Ryan told reporters. “My heart is broken for the victims and their families.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered support to the university and authorities Monday morning. During the press conference, he called the shooting a “horrific tragedy.”
“This morning, Suzanne and I are praying for the UVA community. Virginia State Police is fully coordinating with the UVA police department and local authorities. Please shelter in place while the authorities work to locate the suspect,” Youngkin said in a tweet.
What We Know So Far:
The shooting reportedly took place in the Culbreth parking garage of the university’s main campus in Charlottesville around 10:16 p.m.
Jones was suspected of the shooting earlier on and was considered armed and dangerous.
The shooting happened as students, including Jones, were returning from Washington D.C. on a charter bus from a field trip to see a play for a class. The father of one of the victims said officials told him Jones allegedly carried a gun on the bus and opened fire when the bus returned to campus.
The three deceased victims are Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.
Davis and Perry were found dead on the bus and Chandler died at a nearby hospital.
One other student is in critical condition and the other is in good condition, school officials said.
Two students who witnessed part of the shooting told CNN they heard faint popping sounds as the charter bus was going over a speed bump on Sunday night. It stopped with the emergency lights on, and people started running out. Someone fell to the ground, they said.
The witnesses said they hid behind a wall of a building and called 911, but hung up after they heard sirens. They walked over to the bus when they thought it was safe and saw a woman with a bloody leg receiving aid, they said. The students saw two people running from the bus, and one matched the suspect’s description, CNN reports.
The suspect is facing three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, authorities said.
Who is Christopher Darnell Jones?
Jones, 22, is a UVA student who was a running back for the school’s football team in 2018, however, he did appear in any games, according to the university’s athletic page.
Jones grew up in Virginia and has three siblings.
The suspect attended Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia, during his senior year where he was a running back and linebacker for the school’s football team. He spent his three previous years at Varina High School in Henrico, Virginia, where he also played football.
UVA Police Chief Tim Longo said Jones was investigated by campus officials in September after receiving a tip from off campus that he talked about being in possession of a gun. The person did not see the gun nor were the comments made in combination with a threat.
UVA’s Office of Student Affairs investigated the allegations and made contact with Jones’ roommate and the tipster. The roommate did not see the weapon. The office also attempted to contact Jones.
What We Know About the Victims:
Chandler was a junior from Virginia Beach. He transferred to UVA from the University of Wisconsin after the past season where he was a wide receiver for two years. He started his football career at Arlington High School in Tennessee where he played wide receiver and defensive back before transferring to William Amos Hough High School in North Carolina, according to the university’s website.
Davis, with an undecided major in UVA’s College of Arts and Sciences, was a junior from Dorchester, South Carolina, whose. He played wide receiver and safety for Woodland High School in Dorchester for four years. Davis was part of the UVA football team group The Groundskeepers, a community outreach group focused on unity and social change, reports show.
Perry was a junior from Miami, Florida. In high school, he played linebacker, defensive line and tight end at Gulliver Prep, a private day school in Miami. His mother, Happy Perry, is a supervisor of distribution operations for the U.S. Postal Service, according to her Facebook page. His father is Sean Perry, and he has at least two siblings.
Michael Hollins Jr. is currently incubated after undergoing surgery on Monday morning and was set for another surgery in the afternoon, The Advocate reports. His father, Michael Hollins Sr., told The Washington Post that he is expected to graduate next month with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship and African-American history and wants to continue playing football for UVA as he works on his master’s degree at the school.
