University of Virginia President James Ryan speaks at a news conference and announces the names of three victims of an overnight shooting at the University of Virginia.
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University of Virginia President James Ryan speaks at a news conference and announces the names of three victims of an overnight shooting at the University of Virginia.
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A shooting at the University of Virginia late Sunday night killed three football players and injured two others, campus police and University President Jim Ryan confirmed early Monday.
Police said suspect Chris Darnell Jones was arrested Monday morning after a more than 12-hour manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies. according to UVA emergency management.
The shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. ET on a charter bus full of students returning from a field trip to see a play, the university president said in a news conference.
Police say the three victims, all juniors and members of the UVA football team, were found dead at the scene: Devin Chandler, a wide receiver from Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lavel Davis, a wide receiver from Dorchester, SC; and D’Sean Perry, a linebacker from Miami, Fla.
University officials have not yet released the names of two other victims who are being treated for injuries; one is in critical condition.
Police officers move through the crime scene.
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Police officers move through the crime scene.
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Students and staff were sheltered in place for approximately 12 hours
“This is an unimaginably sad day for our community,” Ryan said. “The entire university community is in mourning this morning. My heart is broken for the victims and their families and everyone who knew and loved them.”
Classes and extracurricular activities were canceled on Monday and Public transportation to the campus has been discontinued. Public schools in surrounding Albemarle County were also closed for the day.
A campus-wide shelter-in-place order was lifted shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET after an extensive search of the grounds.
Jones was arrested “without incident” in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, about 76 miles southeast of the university. This is according to a press release from the local police station.
UVA Police Chief Tim Longo said Jones faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun to commit a felony.
Jones, who is a student at the university, was listed as a football player on the university’s athletics website in 2018 but did not appear in any games.
Longo said Jones had previously come to the attention of campus police because he was involved in a bullying incident.
Police closed the investigation after witnesses refused to cooperate, Longo said, but found Jones broke a concealed weapons rule outside the city of Charlottesville in February 2021.
The Biden administration is calling for stricter gun control
The University of Virginia Charlottesville campus in 2018.
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The University of Virginia Charlottesville campus in 2018.
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Tributes for Chandler, Davis and Perry poured out on social media on Monday. UVA football players and coaches described shock, outrage and heartbreak as they shared pictures and stories of the men.
Jack Hamilton, a UVA professor who said Chandler and Davis were both his students, described the former as “an incredibly nice person, always a big smile, very sociable and fun. One of those people you just can’t like.”
Davis did everything he could to make friends with non-athletes and was well liked by many of his fellow students, Hamilton wrote.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement expressing President Biden’s “deepest condolences” to the “countless families, friends and neighbors who are mourning the dead and injured in this senseless shooting.”
“We must enact an assault weapons ban to remove weapons of war from America’s streets,” Pierre wrote in reference to a bill that passed this July in the House of Representatives but appears to have no chance of overcoming a filibuster in the Senate.
UVA officials had not yet released information about the type of gun used in Sunday’s shooting.
UVA is at least the second university to report student deaths this weekend
On Sunday, police in Moscow, Idaho, said four University of Idaho students were found dead in a home near campus. Police investigating the incident have described the deaths as a suspected homicide.
“The Moscow police extend our heartfelt condolences to family members, friends and the Moscow community,” the police said in a statement.
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