Suspect caught in fatal shooting of 3 U.Va. footballers | National
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A University of Virginia student shot and killed three members of the school’s football team as they returned from a field trip, authorities said, prompting panic and a 12-hour campus lockdown until the suspect was captured Monday.
The violence that broke out near the parking lot on Sunday night also left two students injured. The police searched for the attacker all night.
Officials were told during a morning briefing that the suspect, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., had been arrested.
“Just give me a moment to thank God, to breathe a sigh of relief,” University Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. said after learning Jones was in custody.
The shooting happened just after 10:15 p.m. Sunday as a charter bus full of students was returning from a play in Washington.
University President Jim Ryan said authorities do not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the shooting.
“The entire university community is grieving this morning,” said a visibly stressed Ryan. “My heart is broken for the victims and their families, and for all those who knew and loved them.”
The killings come as the country is on the brink of a spate of mass shootings in the past six months, including a shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. elementary school in Uwald, Texas; shooting at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago, where seven people died and more than 30 were injured; and a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New Yorkas a result of which 10 people died and three were injured.
Students who were told to shelter in place while police searched for the gunman described the terrifying hours they spent hiding in closets, dormitories, libraries and apartments. They listened to police scanners and tried to remember everything they were taught as children during active shooter drills.
Shannon Lake, a third-year student from Crozet, Virginia, spent 12 hours with friends in the lab, most of the time in a storage closet. She thought a lot about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six teachers dead.
“It just brought back all those feelings and reminded us that this is still an issue in our country, which is very sad,” Lake said.
Elizabeth Paul, a student from northern Virginia, was working on her computer in the library when she got a call from her mom who had received news of the shooting.
Paul said she initially dismissed any concerns, thinking it was probably something minor. She knew she had to take it seriously when an active shooter alert flashed on her computer.
“I think it said, ‘Run.’ Hide. Fight, she said.
Paul said she stayed in the library huddled with several others for about 12 hours. She spent most of the night talking to her mother on the phone.
“Didn’t even talk to her the whole time, but she wanted the line on so that if I needed anything, she’d be there,” she said.
Ryan identified the three students who were killed as Devin Chandler, Lavelle Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. According to him, one of the injured students is hospitalized in serious condition, and the other is in good condition.
The shooting sparked an intense manhunt, with authorities searching campus buildings and students sheltering in place. The lockdown order was lifted late Monday morning.
Jones was taken into custody without incident in suburban Richmond, police said.
Authorities obtained warrants for Jones’ arrest charging him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun during the commission of a crime, Longo said.
It was not immediately clear if Jones has an attorney or when he will make his first court appearance.
Jones was once on the football team, but he hasn’t been on the team for at least a year, Longo said. UVA’s football website listed him as a member of the team during the 2018 season and said he did not play in any games.
In the hours after Jones was arrested, first-year head football coach Tony Elliott sat alone outside the athletic building used by the team, at times with his head in his hands. He said the victims “were all good kids” and that he would say more about them “when the time comes.”
Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team this fall after someone unrelated to the school reported Jones’ remark about having a weapon, Longo said.
There were no reports of a threat combined with concerns about a weapon, but officials looked into it, then with Jones’ roommate.
Longo also said Jones was involved in “some sort of hazing investigation.” He said he did not have all the facts and circumstances of the case, but the investigation was closed because the witnesses refused to cooperate.
In addition, officials were made aware of a previous incident outside of Charlottesville involving a weapons violation, Longo said. The incident was not reported to the university as it should have been, he said.
Em Guenther, a second-year anthropology student, heard three shots, then three more, while she was studying genetics in her dorm room.
She immediately knew there was an active shooter outside and told the others to go to their rooms, close the blinds and turn off the lights. “Everyone was in a frenzy in the corridor. No one knew what to do,” she said.
For the next 12 hours, she stayed in her room with a friend, listening to the police scanner and texting her family and friends who were stuck in other areas of campus.
She said the students know how to react from the shooter drills.
“But how are we going to deal with it later?” – she asked. – What will happen in a week, in a month?
Eva Suravelle, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Cavalier Daily, said that after students received a call about an active shooter, she ran to the parking garage only to find it blocked off by police. When she got to a nearby intersection, she was told to take cover.
“My generation definitely grew up with general gun violence, but it doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your own community,” she said.
Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom said in a letter to the UVA community that classes and other academic activities will be canceled on Tuesday. A university-wide vigil is planned for later.
Elsewhere, police in Moscow, Idaho, were investigating the deaths of four Idaho State University students was found Sunday at a home near campus.
Officers discovered the death when they responded to a report of an unconscious person, authorities said.
Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; Sarah Broomfield in Silver Spring, Md.; John Seaver in Toledo, Ohio; Hank Kurtz in Charlottesville, Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; and news researcher Rhonda Schaffner; and video journalist Nathan Ellegren and photographer Steve Helber in Charlottesville.
https://www.wandtv.com/news/national/suspect-caught-in-fatal-shooting-of-3-u-va-football-players/article_70a381f9-849b-5b28-b785-d5b9a1e4202f.html