As flags were lowered to half-staff across Virginia at Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s request, details began to emerge from the on-campus slaying of three University of Virginia football players Sunday night. Two other students were wounded.
CNN reports that the suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, faced “school disciplinary action after UVA officials learned he failed to disclose his conviction last year on a misdemeanor concealed weapons charge,” according to a school spokesperson.
University President Jim Ryan said that the motive behind the shootings isn’t fully understood.
The three killed were identified Monday as Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. All three were members of the Cavaliers football team. One of the two injured students has been publicly identified by his mother as junior running back Michael Hollins, according to WAVY.
Hollins’ mother, Brenda Hollins, tweeted Tuesday that her son was going in for a second surgery, and asked friends to pray for him.
NBC Washington reported that “Chandler was a second-year student from Virginia Beach, Virginia; Davis was a third-year student from Ridgeville, South Carolina, and Perry was a fourth-year student from Miami, Florida.”
The news organization said that the shooting started “aboard a bus full of students who had just returned from a field trip Sunday night after seeing a play in Washington, D.C., officials said.”
The alleged shooter was taken into custody without incident in Henrico County, Virginia, about 80 miles from Charlottesville, after a 12-hour manhunt. During that time, those on campus were ordered to shelter in place.
UVA Police Chief Tom Longo told reporters that the suspect faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.
Officials said that the suspect was convicted in 2021 on a misdemeanor concealed weapons charge and was given a yearlong suspended sentence and a small fine. But he did not meet his obligation to report the conviction to the university, per CNN.
What — if any — role that played in the shooting is unclear, officials said.
The suspect’s father, Christopher Darnell Jones Sr., told WWBT, “I can’t believe it was him. I still can’t believe it now.”
The news report said that “all he wants to do now is visit his son so he can figure out what went wrong.”
He told the news station he had seen his son the previous month. “He came to the house, he did his laundry, we sat and talked, and he seemed like he was doing really well,” Jones Sr. said. “When we finally had a chance to talk, he said there were some people there who were giving him a hard time, but he still was upbeat, and he was positive. I don’t know what happened between then and now to cause this to happen.”
Per NBC Washington, “A vigil was held on Monday night on UVA’s campus to honor the five students killed or injured in the shooting. Thousands of students poured onto the lawn, sitting in deafening silence with their classmates to mourn.”