University of Virginia: ‘heartache and devastation’ after football team killings
People struggling to grasp why a former University of Virginia football player allegedly shot three team members dead on a bus last Sunday have found few answers, though the suspect’s father has said his son had become “paranoid” as he faced potential school discipline.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr’s father also apologized to the families of D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr and Devin Chandler, who were killed, as well as two others who were wounded.
Jones Jr was facing potential punishment for failing to disclose a weapons possession conviction.
“I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry on his behalf,” Christopher Darnell Jones Sr told WWBT, a local TV station. “I don’t know what happened to cause all of this.”
By Tuesday, police hadn’t said if Jones Jr had reason to be upset with those he allegedly shot. The case remained under investigation.
Authorities suspect Jones Jr, 22, opened fire at about 10.15pm on Sunday, as a bus full of students returned from seeing a play in Washington DC. Jones fled, setting off a manhunt that saw police search the Charlottesville campus building by building while students hid inside laboratory closets, darkened dorm rooms and away from windows.
Late on Monday morning, police arrested Jones in his car about an hour away in Henrico, where his family lives. He faces three counts each of seconddegree murder as well as using a handgun in the commission of a felony, and could be arraigned on Wednesday.
News of the killings set off a wave of grief in a community still traumatized by a white supremacist rally in 2017 that was marked by a deadly police helicopter crash as well as the murder of a counter-protester.
Thousands descended on the Lawn, at the center of campus, to honor the killed football players. They prayed for the wounded, one another football player, Mike Hollins. Hollins’s mother told Sports Illustrated she had been able to see her son on Monday. Hollins couldn’t speak, she said, but wrote her a message: “How are my three teammates?”
“We are asking God that you will be with them, be with their families,” another football player told the crowd on the Lawn, Sports Illustrated reported. “Be with their families, be with Mike as he fights.”
The UVA coach, Tony Elliott, described “heartache and devastation” among the rest of the squad.
“These were incredible young men with huge aspirations and extremely bright futures,” Elliott said. “These precious young men were called away too soon.”
Jones Jr stood out in high school as both a football player and as a student. He won plaudits as a running back and linebacker and was also a member of the National Honor Society, a group that recognizes academic excellence. He also presided over a community service club and was a two-time student of the year.
At UVA, he was on the football team for one season, his freshman campaign in 2018, as a running back. An injury prevented him from practicing or participating in any games, so he rehabilitated and underwent treatment. He was under risk of being disciplined after university officials learned he failed to disclose his conviction last year on a misdemeanor charge of illegally concealed weapons, for which he was given probation and a fine.
In September, the school investigated him for potential hazing after a student reported that Jones “made a comment … about possessing a gun”, CNN reported, citing a university spokesperson. The student did not see a gun and investigators said there was “no indication of the presence of any weapons” after questioning Jones’s roommate.
Nonetheless, officials told CNN they
were seeking more information about Jones’s conviction and the claim that he had a gun but “repeatedly refused to cooperate”.
When he last spoke with his son, the elder Jones told WBBT, Jones Jr seemed off in some way.
“He said some people were picking on him or whatever – he didn’t know how to handle it, and I told him just go to school, don’t pay it any mind,” Jones Sr said. “He was really paranoid … about something, but he wouldn’t tell me everything.”
Under Virginia state law, Jones Jr faces between five and 40 years in prison if convicted of murder.
“I don’t know why he didn’t call me” before the shooting, Jones Sr said. “If he had called me Saturday, I think maybe I could have talked him out of some things, maybe, hopefully.”