Virginia defensive end D’Sean Perry and wide receivers Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler are the three football players who were killed Sunday night in a campus shooting, university president Jim Ryan confirmed Monday.
The suspected gunman, identified by Ryan and campus police as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., is now in custody, campus police chief Tim Longo said Monday. He has been charged with three counts each of second-degree murder and using a handgun in the alleged commission of a felony.
Jones is a former Virginia football player and was listed as a freshman running back in 2018. Longo said he was known to campus police.
In September, the school’s Office of Students Affairs was told Jones had discussed having a gun, and he was investigated by a threat assessment team on campus. He also was investigated in connection with alleged hazing, but the case was dropped when witnesses declined to cooperate, Longo said.
Jones also was involved in an incident last year involving a concealed weapon outside Charlottesville, the chief said.
Ryan said Sunday’s shooting took place on a bus as students returned from a field trip to Washington, D.C., to see a play for a class. Police responded to multiple calls reporting a gunman had fired several shots around 10:40 p.m.
Two others were being treated for injuries, according to Ryan, following the shooting at Culbreth Garage on the Virginia campus in Charlottesville. One victim is in good condition and the other is critical, Ryan said.
“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,” Ryan’s message said Monday. “This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community and we have canceled classes for today (Monday, Nov. 14).”
Ryan said that Monday night’s basketball game between Virginia and visiting Northern Iowa has been canceled.
Davis was one of the top receivers on the roster but had recently been sidelined with a concussion.
Perry, 22, and Chandler, a junior who played 10 games at Wisconsin before joining the Cavaliers.
Davis had 16 receptions for 371 yards and two touchdowns this season.
A junior from Miami, Perry played for the Cavaliers against Pitt on Saturday, recording two tackles.
Chandler had not appeared in a game with Virginia this season.
Charlottesville has experienced multiple gun-related incidents since the start of the 2022 school year. A total of five teenagers were shot between Sept. 22 and Oct. 15 and two other fatal shootings took place in October.
–Field Level Media
