Jared Tofil | Sports Writer
Around 10:30 pm on Sunday, November 13th, a shooting took place at the University of Virginia in a parking garage behind the drama building on Culbreth Road. The students were returning from a field trip when the shooting occurred. “Where they’d been for the day enjoying a school activity, having a meal together, and coming back to our grounds, and someone amongst them chose to do an act of violence, and we found them dead inside that bus,” said Chief Tim Longo, University of Virginia Police Dept.
The suspect in the shooting, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, who is a student at UVA and a former player on the football team back in 2018, was later arrested without incident. Three of the victims in the shooting who sadly passed were Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and DeSean Perry. All 3 of them are a part of the UVA football team. 2 other victims were injured but haven't had their identities released. “When I see our students, I see my own kids. And I cannot imagine anything worse for a parent than to lose a child,” said President Ryan.
The school has decided that they will cancel their final home game of the year vs. Coastal Carolina on Saturday, November 19th. Coastal Carolina has expressed support over this decision saying, "As much as we love gameday and the spirit it brings, there is a time when the sanctity of life and sustaining of a community take precedence. This is one of those times," Matt Hogue, Coastal Carolina's vice president for intercollegiate athletics. Classes have been canceled and will resume shortly at the school, and events to honor the victims have been put into the works.
“It feels like a nightmare, honestly,” Mr. Elliott, the coach of the UVA football team, said, “and I’m ready for somebody to pinch me and wake me up.”
“You prepare for the job; there’s no chapter on the situation like this,” he added. “And so I’m just trying to figure out, step by step, how to be strong for these young men.”
Christopher Darnell Jones has been denied bond, and with his three murder charges also has charges associated with a hit and run and concealed weapon charge from 2021. He is held at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and his hearing is scheduled for December.
| “It feels like a nightmare, honestly,”“and I’m ready for somebody to pinch me and wake me up.”
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