On November 13th, tragedy struck on the University of Virginia campus after a shooting on a charter bus left 3 students dead and 2 wounded.
The charter bus was returning from Washington DC, said to have been on a class field trip to see a play. At around 10:30 pm, the suspect was said to have opened fire, shooting and killing 3 of the students on the bus, and injuring 2 more. He then fled the bus and proceeded to put the whole campus on a 12 hour lockdown as authorities pursued a manhunt to find him. During a press conference on Monday, November 14th, Tim Longo, the university’s police chief, received word of the suspect’s apprehension. “Just need a moment to thank God, breathe a sigh of relief,” the chief said. Prosecutors have described this as a “targeted” shooting. A medical examiner confirmed their descriptions by announcing that all victims died from gunshot wounds to their heads.
The three victims, D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr., and Devin Chandler, were all members of the UVA football team. Head coach Tony Elliot said that their deaths “left three enormous holes on a team that felt more like a family than anything” during a press conference that Tuesday. He describes the three victims, calling Chandler “the life of the party,” Davis “the big man on campus” and Perry “the quiet guy everyone wanted to know about.” Elliott also commended the strength of his team and staff for coming together and being able to process the shooting. Elliott said the team has inspired him to keep pushing forward. At the same time, he said staff has made it their mission to ensure the team had all the resources they need and that no one went into isolation. Since the tragedy, students, Cavalier fans nationwide and even rival teams have shown their support. Intrastate rival Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball team wore merchandise with the slogan “Hokies for Hoos” during their game this week. And at the VT vs. Liberty football game, as the team ran out onto the field, players carried not only a Virginia Tech flag, but one for Virginia as well. “For our Brothers,” Virginia Tech football wrote on Twitter. “Carrying you with us every step of the way @UVAFootball 🤞.” A vigil Monday drew hundreds on the Charlottesville campus, with candles placed around the Statue of Homer along with signs reading “UVA Strong” and “1-15-41” – the uniform numbers of the three players. A memorial service took place on November 19th at John Paul Jones Area for the three victims. 9,075 people were in attendance.
Along with three dead, two students, Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan, were wounded. Hollins, also a football player at UVA, was shot in the back and remained in hospital after undergoing two surgeries to remove the bullet from his stomach, while Morgan, the sole person injured in the shooting who wasn’t on the school’s football team, was reportedly released from hospital Tuesday. Reports revealed that Hollins was trying to warn others before being struck by gunfire. His mother, Brenda Hollins, has been giving updates about her son’s condition. “My son, he has feeling, so hurting is good. And so I’m trying to look at it in that aspect because … I saw him yesterday … he was up, he was walking. He was laughing, and I mean we had a good time, and then today he’s hurting,” the mother told CNN. “He’s back in bed, and I know it’s going to be up and down, and I’m grateful for that because with the pain, here’s here, he’s with me.” Hollins also said her son, from his hospital bed, was waiting to find out what happened to Perry and the others who died. Perry was Mike’s best friend, said his mother. “As soon as they took him off of the ventilator, he asked ‘where’s D’Sean?’ And no one said anything, and my daughter, she shook her head and she told him he didn’t make it. And he just broke down, he broke down,”
The suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, is now being held at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail without bond. Darnell is being charged with 3 counts of 2 degree murder and 3 counts of using a handgun in the commision of a felony. Reports say that he was on the bus with the rest of the victims, and he opened fire from there. Jones was also a member of the UVA football team in 2018, but he didn’t play due to injury. Reports also show that complaints were previously filed against Jones, one being called in on September 15th about Jones possessing a gun. “On September 15, in the context of reviewing a potential hazing issue, UVA Student Affairs heard from a student that Mr. Jones made a comment to him about possessing a gun,” said Brian Coy, the university spokesperson.That person “did not see Mr. Jones in possession of a gun,” and the “comment about owning a gun was not made in conjunction with a threat,” Coy said.“In the course of their investigation, University officials spoke with Mr. Jones’ roommate, who gave no indication of the presence of any weapons. In the course of their investigation, University officials discovered that Mr. Jones previously had been tried and convicted of a misdemeanor concealed weapons violation in 2021, for which he received a 12-month suspended sentence and a small fine.” Throughout the investigation, Coy said, “Mr. Jones repeatedly refused to cooperate with University officials who were seeking additional information about the claims that he had a firearm and about his failure to disclose the previous misdemeanor conviction.
UVA students, teachers, and fans continue to mourn this tragedy as UVA gets written down on the list of US school shootings this year. Currently there have been a record 257 school shootings in the US in 2022 alone. But this cycle will continue. Tragedy will strike, lives will be lost, and the country will mourn. And yet as more children, as more human beings are slain in these attacks, no change will be seen coming from our governing bodies. And even though the victims of this attack were older than most victims of a school shooting, they were still someone’s child, someone’s brother, someone’s grandchild. They were still someone loved by so many. It just leaves us to wonder, when will the bloodshed in schools stop? When will parents be able to send their kids to school without having to worry about whether they will make it home? When will we have to stop teaching 5 and 6 year olds what to do in the case that this happens to them? When will kids be able to walk the halls of their school without the fear of dying? When will it stop? Will it ever stop? Or is this just the new reality for America’s kids?
If you see or hear something that leads you to think that someone is planning to hurt you or others. Please do not hesitate to tell a trusted adult or anonymously report it to the HHS Safe School Helpline. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Call: 1-800-418-6423, Ext. 397
Text: 614-426-0240, then type TIPS
