January 1, 3 UVA Football Players Fatally Shot

Police have arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly fatally shot three members of the University of Virginia (UVA) football team and injured two others.

Timothy Longo, UVA’s chief of police, announced the arrest during a press conference on Monday morning. He said the tragic incident occurred when the football team returned to the school on a charter bus.

Officials said that UVA police responded to a report of shots fired near a parking garage on Culbreth Road at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. Two students on the charter bus were pronounced dead after police arrived on the scene, while a third was taken to a nearby hospital and later succumbed to his injuries there.

The deceased victims were identified as sophomore Devin Chandler, junior Lavel Davis, and senior D’Sean Perry.

Authorities identified the suspect as Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., a UVA student. Jones was charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in commission of a felony, Longo said.

“This is an extraordinarily difficult day for our community, and we need to comfort and support each other and those closest to the victims of this horrendous shooting,” UVA President Jim Ryan said.

Ryan said two other students remain in the hospital, one stable and one in critical condition. He declined to identify the students.

“It’s been an incredibly long evening, very tragic circumstances for our university community, for the city of Charlottesville, the county of Albemarle, the Commonwealth,” Longo said. “It’s especially tragic for a small number of families who we had to break some really bad news to.”

Longo said that Jones, the alleged shooter, had been “called to our attention” in September after the school received a report that Jones had made a remark about possessing a firearm.

“He had been called to our attention,” Longo said.

The police chief said Jones hadn’t made any threats, and his roommate had indicated that he hadn’t seen a gun. Jones was also previously involved in a hazing investigation that was closed, Longo added.

Longo said that during their investigation, school officials discovered that Jones had received a concealed weapons violation in February 2021.

UVA rules dictate that he was required to report the violation, but he didn’t, Longo said.

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Source: The Hill