A former University of Virginia football player suspected of killing three football players and wounding two other students on campus late Sunday night is in custody after a manhunt in Charlottesville, Virginia, police confirmed Monday.
via: NBC News
The University of Virginia Police Department identified Christopher Darnell Jones, 22, as the suspect in the shooting.
In the middle of a news conference at 11 a.m., UVA Chief of Police Timothy Longo abruptly announced that Jones had been taken into custody.
Jones was a former member of the school’s football team. He was listed on the 2018 football roster shared on the official website of the Virginia Cavaliers, but did not appear on the Cavalier’s roster in any following seasons.
Longo said that the police department secured an arrest warrant charging him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.
https://twitter.com/UVAPolice/status/1592028905804009472?s=20&t=zdCAB86SJa5MaQMa4mOI2g
The victims have been identified.
Lavel Davis Jr., 20, was a wide receiver on the Virginia Cavaliers’ current roster.
Davis was set to graduate in December and was the beloved first child, and a “role model” to his younger brother and younger sister, his father, Thaddeus Lavel Davis, told NBC News.
Thaddeus Davis said he’s “heartbroken.”
“I lost my baby. This is my firstborn child,” he said, adding that his son could “light up a room just with a smile” and that his son was focused on school, football and his family.
Their family, from Charleston, South Carolina, is headed to the UVA campus Monday.
Thaddeus said he learned the news of his son’s death Monday morning after receiving a call from his wife while he was at work, but didn’t know exactly what transpired in the shooting.
He said he last talked to his son Saturday and he wished he could’ve told him one last time, “I love you, son.”
Devin Chandler
The Huntersville, N.C. native had considered attending UVa out of high school, but opted for Wisconsin instead, so his decision to transfer to UVa was an easy, he said earlier this year. He committed when former coach Bronco Mendenhall was still in charge, and decided to stick to his commitment after current coach Tony Elliott’s hiring in December.
Chandler was a wide receiver, he had not made an appearance in 2022.
D’Sean Perry
D’ Sean Perry, who was 6’3″ tall and weighed 230 pounds, made two tackles in Saturday’s University of Virginia’s game against Pittsburgh. Today, his parents, Sean and Happy Perry, are flying in from his hometown of Miami.
Perry, a linebacker, appeared in seven UVA games just in 2021, according to Virginia Sports.
We are sending our condolences to the families of the victims.
