Va. shooting suspect targeted victims, court told
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A witness who saw a University of Virginia student open fire on a bus returning from a field trip described to police how the gunman targeted specific victims — many of them football players — shooting one as he slept, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.
The details emerged during the suspect’s first court appearance, the same day the university announced it was canceling Saturday’s football game in the wake of the deadly shooting.
A witness who was shown a photo of the shooting suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones, identified him as the gunman, the prosecutor said. The violence Sunday night left three football players dead and one player and another student wounded.
Jones, a former football player, appeared by video link from a local jail for the court hearing. He did not enter a plea to the numerous charges and said he plans to hire an attorney. A judge ordered him held without bond and appointed a public defender to represent him until he secures private counsel.
University officials and police have said Jones, who turns 23 Thursday, joined about two dozen others on a field trip Sunday from the Charlottesville campus to see a play in the nation’s capital, about 120 miles away. When their bus arrived back on campus, authorities have said Jones opened fire, killing Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler.
Police have said Jones was able to flee the scene, setting off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown that left many students petrified. He faces three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and additional gun-related charges.