Manhunt ends with an arrest after shooter kills 3 on U of Virginia campus

Police have arrested a suspect in a mass shooting on the University of Virginia campus that left three members of the football team dead and two other individuals wounded Sunday night. No motive for the attack has been given.

University of Virginia Police identified the suspect as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22. At an 11 a.m. ET news conference, they said he was taken into custody and charged with murder following an intense manhunt in the Charlottesville area.

“Campus officials said the five students were shot on a bus that had returned from a field trip,” per The Washington Post.

ESPN provided some details about the three who were killed: Cavaliers junior receiver Lavel Davis Jr. of Dorchester, South Carolina; junior receiver Devin Chandler of Huntersville, North Carolina; and junior defensive end/linebacker D’Sean Perry of Miami.

The shooting occurred in a garage on campus around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. A shelter-in-place order that stretched into Monday morning was lifted after 12 hours by the university’s Office of Emergency Management “based upon a thorough search,” The New York Times reported.

Earlier, Jim Ryan, president of the university, said in an email to the campus community that the suspect is a student at the school. He added that “I am holding the victims, their families, and all members of the University of Virginia community in my heart today, and we will make plans to come together as a community to grieve as soon as the suspect is apprehended.”

WJLA reported that the suspect was listed as a member of the UVA football team in 2018, citing the school’s athletics website.

The BBC reported that “the university is considered among one of the most prestigious in the country and ranked No. 3 in public universities in the U.S.”

Ryan canceled classes for Monday.