Student charged in triple murder
CHARLOTTESVILLE: A former US college football player has been charged with murder after three members of the University of Virginia team were shot dead at the school.
Police chief Timothy Longo told a news conference that a 22-year-old UVA student, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, had been taken into custody on suspicion of carrying out the shooting on Sunday night.
Police in Henrico County said Jones was arrested “without incident” on Monday morning (local time) in a suburb of Richmond, about 120km from the UVA campus in Charlottesville.
The three players who died were identified as Cavaliers wide receivers Lavel Davis Jr and Devin Chandler, and linebacker D’Sean Perry. The shooting took place on a bus while students were returning from a field trip, according to
UVA president Jim Ryan, who said all three of those who died were members of the school’s football team.
Two other students were wounded, and one of them was in critical condition.
“This is a sad, shocking and tragic day for our UVA community,” Mr Ryan said. “My heart is broken for the victims and their families.”
The campus in Charlottesville, about 160km southwest of Washington, was locked down for hours while police searched for Jones, a former UVA football player listed on the Cavaliers’ 2018 roster as a first-year running back.
Mr Longo said Jones had earlier been brought to the attention of the school’s “threat assessment” team after a report that he possessed a gun but no weapon was discovered.
The latest outburst of campus gun violence came as four people were found dead in a separate incident near the University of Idaho.
The White House sent its condolences to families of the victims of the “senseless shooting” and called on congress to pass stricter gun control laws.
“Too many families across America are bearing the awful burden of gun violence,” the White House said.