By Anna Grace Shaia

On the night of Sunday, November 13, around 10:30 p.m., there was a fatal shooting on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. 

Former UVA football player Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., shot five students on a bus upon arriving back to Charlottesville after a field trip. Four out of the five students shot played football for UVA, and three were killed. The fourth was in the ICU following the shooting but is recovering well. The fifth person shot was a female student on the bus and was not significantly injured.

Pictures of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis, Jr., and D’Sean Perry displayed at UVA. Photo credit: UVA Instagram page.

Jones murdered Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis, Jr., and D’Sean Perry. All three were football players at the University of Virginia.

Chandler, shot and murdered while peacefully sleeping on the bus, was a junior wide receiver from Arlington, Tennessee. He transferred from the University of Wisconsin in the past off-season. In an article from CNN, Chandler’s former football coach from high school, Adam Sykes, describes him as, “always smiling and trying to make sure those around him were happy.” Tony Elliot, the UVA head football coach, described Chandler as “not only a great football player, but a ‘big kid’ who loved to smile, sing and dance.”

Lavel Davis, Jr., from Ridgefield, South Carolina, was a junior at UVA. He was a wide receiver on the football team. Elliot described Davis in an article from ABC News by saying: “‘He’s got a gentleness about him. But he’s passionate about what he believes in.’” NBC News reported that Davis was the oldest child in his family and served as a great role model for his two younger siblings. 

D’Sean Perry was a junior at UVA and a linebacker on the football team. Elliot stated that he believes that Perry was “possibly the most interesting man on the team,” in an article from ESPN. Students from Perry’s high school in Miami, Florida described how Perry was not only a star football player, but he was also an artist. Perry spent some of his time drawing and writing poetry. Perry loved helping his classmates and always wanted to make others laugh. 

Jones was charged with two counts of malicious wounding and three counts of second-degree murder. He was also charged with two firearm felonies. He grew up in Richmond and went to Varina High School. At Varina, he was the President of the Key Club and a member of the National Honor Society. He was also the Student Of The Year both freshman and sophomore year in high school. Jones was on the UVA football team in 2018 but never played in any games due to past injuries. According to CNN, when his father, Chris Jones, Sr., got the call telling him what authorities suspected his son had done, he was absolutely shocked. 

After sending UVA into a 12-hour lockdown, Darnell drove to Richmond and was found by Henrico County Police around 11 a.m. on November 14. This was not the first time Jones has come in contact with the police. In September, Jones was brought to the attention of UVA police because someone heard that he had a gun. The person who reported Jones never saw the gun; they only heard about it. The university police also found that in 2021 Jones was convicted of a misdemeanor concealed weapons violation and did not report this to the University. In 2018, when Jones was under 21, Jones tried to purchase a gun from Dance’s Sporting Goods, but he was denied because he was under age. Jones went back again in 2021 and tried to buy a gun, but was unable to purchase the gun because he failed his background check. When Jones went back to the exact store in Colonial Heights in February, he was able to purchase a gun, and he purchased another in July. 

Students mourning the death of their classmates. Photo credit: UVA Instagram page.

Skylar Mullins (‘22) is now a freshman at UVA and was in an American Politics class with Jones. Mullins described that, “The first day back afterward was really hard. He sat across from me, and I couldn’t stop looking at his empty seat, but because we are such a small class, everyone was really close, and we were all trying to be there for each other. We had a counselor in the room, and our teacher was really understanding and compassionate, and made attending class optional from now on. Everyone was just in a weird state of trying to get back to classes, and some sense of normality, but everything felt so different.”

Mullins also described how everyone on campus was in shock, and even after the lockdown was lifted, people still didn’t want to leave their rooms. Mullins described the campus as a “ghost town.” Mullins explained the state of shock that they were experiencing and explained how her friends and her “would just sit in my room and not talk, because nobody knew what to say”. She also explained that the vigil that was on Monday, November 14 was the first time that people left their dorms for most people and explained how special it was to have everyone supporting each other and gathering together.

Featured image via twitter@UVA.