On Sunday night, a tragic shooting took place on the campus of the University of Virginia, killing 3 students, all UVA football players. A 12-hour manhunt ensued, and the suspect was apprehended the following morning “without incident.”
The victims of this attack were D’Sean Perry, a junior from Miami, Lavel Davis Jr., a junior from Dorchester, South Carolina, and Devin Chandler, a junior from Huntersville, North Carolina.
Two other students were shot and hospitalized. One is reportedly in good condition, and the other is in critical condition.
Around 10:30 pm on Sunday, a shooting at the north edge of campus was reported, and school authorities immediately alerted students with the message, “ACTIVE ATTACKER firearm reported in area of Culbreth Road. RUN HIDE FIGHT.”
A university shelter-in-place order was initiated, lasting about 12 hours.
The shooting occurred on a charter bus that had just returned students to campus from a field trip.
As the search was underway for the shooter, Jim Ryan, the president of UVA, released a statement in which he named the suspect responsible for the murders: Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr.
Jones is a former UVA football player that never appeared in any games.
Ryan also announced the fatalities that had occurred, saying, “This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia.”
At the briefing, Longo also revealed that Jones had been on the radar of UVA police since September following a hazing investigation, followed by a report of Jones possessing a gun.
“I want to share some information with you because I want to be transparent with you,” Longo said. “Mr. Jones came to the attention of the University of Virginia’s threat assessment team in the fall of 2022… In September 2022, our Office of Student Affairs reported to the multidisciplinary threat assessment team that… they received information that Mr. Jones had made a comment about possessing a gun to a person that was unaffiliated with the university.”
“That reporting person… to the best of our knowledge, never saw the gun,” Longo continued, clarifying that no threats had been made in conjunction with owning the firearm. Additionally, Jones’ roommate reported never seeing a weapon.
Longo continued, saying, “Mr. Jones also had come to the attention of our threat assessment team because he was involved in a hazing investigation of some sort. I don’t know the facts and circumstances of that investigation. I know that it was eventually closed due to witnesses that would not cooperate with the process.”
The police chief then revealed that, through the course of this threat assessment investigation, the department “learned of a prior criminal incident involving a concealed weapon violation that occurred outside the city of Charlottesville in February of 2021.”
Although Jones was supposedly required to report the incident to the university, he never did.