U.Va. Suspect in shooting during field trip, school confirms

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A University of Virginia student who went on a field trip to see a play with classmates is suspected of opening fire on the bus they were riding when the group returned to campus, a university spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Spokesman Brian Coy said the shooting suspect, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., joined a group of about two dozen people who walked about 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Washington. for a tour on Sunday. Police said Jones, a former member of the school’s football team, shot and killed three current team members and wounded two other students.

Shooting caused panic and a 12-hour lockdown campus until the suspect was captured near Richmond on Monday.

University President Jim Ryan said at a press conference Monday that authorities do not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the shooting. Authorities said it was unclear how Jones was able to flee the scene of the shooting.

Jones was a member of the school’s football team during the 2018 season. He has been charged in the fatal shooting three current team members and wounding a fourth participant. Authorities have not said if the other injured student is on the team.

Ryan identified the three students who were killed as Devin Chandler, Lovell Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.

Jones faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a crime, University Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. said. It was not immediately clear when Jones will make his first court appearance.

His father, Chris Jones Sr., told Richmond television station WTVR that he was in disbelief after the call from police on Monday.

“My heart goes out to their families. I don’t know what to say other than I apologize on his behalf and ask for forgiveness,” he said.

Jones’ mother, Margot Ellis, declined to be interviewed when contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday. “There’s so much going on,” she said.

Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team this fall in the context of a review of a “potential hazing issue,” the university said in a statement provided to the AP on Tuesday.

During that review, university officials heard from a student that Jones made a comment about having a weapon. That student did not report that Jones was threatening, according to the statement. University officials investigated and later discovered that Jones had a previous conviction for unlawful possession of a weapon in 2021.

“Throughout the investigation, Mr. Jones repeatedly refused to cooperate with university officials who sought additional information about the allegations that he possessed a firearm and that he had not disclosed any prior felony convictions. Accordingly, on October 27, the threat assessment team referred his case for disciplinary action,” the message reads.

The killings come as the country is on the brink of a series of mass shootings in the past six months, including an attack 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.

Classes and other educational activities were canceled Tuesday, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags to be flown at half-staff as a mark of respect and memory for the victims, their families and the Charlottesville community.

UVA, the state’s flagship public university, has experienced many high-profile tragedies over the past decade, including the 2014 disappearance and murder of a student. It was also the site of violence perpetrated by white supremacists who came to Charlottesville for Unite the Right events in 2017.

“I think UVA has weathered a lot in the past. And I think we’re an incredibly resilient community,” said Ellie Wilkie, a 21-year-old student who holed up in her room on the historic lawn in the center of campus during the lockdown.

But she added that she hopes students will have time to mourn the lives lost and that the university will consider whether systemic changes can be made to prevent something like this from happening again.

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Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va.; Michael Kunzelman and Sarah Broomfield in Silver Spring, Md.; and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia contributed to this report.