By SARAH RANKIN (Related Press)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A College of Virginia pupil and former member of the varsity’s soccer staff fatally shot three present gamers as they returned from a area journey, authorities mentioned, setting off panic and a 12-hour lockdown of the campus till the suspect was captured Monday.
College students who had been advised to shelter in place starting late Sunday described terrifying hours in hiding. Whereas police looked for the gunman by the night time, college students sought security in closets, dorm rooms, libraries and flats. They listened to police scanners and tried to recollect all the things they had been taught as youngsters throughout active-shooter drills.
“I feel all of us had been simply actually unsettled and making an attempt to maintain, you understand, our cool and stage heads throughout the state of affairs,” pupil Shannon Lake mentioned.
Officers acquired phrase throughout a morning information briefing that the suspect, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., had been arrested.
“Simply give me a second to thank God, breathe a sigh of aid,” college Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. mentioned after studying Jones was in custody.
The violence erupted close to a parking storage simply after 10:15 p.m. Sunday as a constitution bus full of scholars returned to Charlottesville from seeing a play in Washington.
College President Jim Ryan mentioned authorities didn’t have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances of the taking pictures.
“All the college group is grieving this morning,” a visibly strained Ryan mentioned.
The killings occurred at a time when the nation is on edge from a string of mass shootings over the past six months, together with an assault that killed 19 college students and two academics at an elementary college in Uvalde, Texas; a taking pictures at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb that killed seven individuals and wounded greater than 30; and a taking pictures at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 individuals and wounded three.
Lake, a third-year pupil from Crozet, Virginia, ended up spending the night time with mates in a lab room, a lot of the time in a storage closet.
Elizabeth Paul, a pupil from northern Virginia, was working at a pc within the library when she acquired a name from her mother, who had obtained phrase in regards to the taking pictures.
Paul mentioned she initially disregarded any concern, considering it was most likely one thing minor. She realized she wanted to take it significantly when her pc lit up with a warning about an energetic shooter.
“I feel it mentioned, ‘Run. Cover. Combat,’” she mentioned.
Paul mentioned she stayed huddled with a number of others within the library. She spent many of the night time on the cellphone along with her mother.
“Not even speaking to her the entire time essentially, however she needed the road to be on in order that if I wanted one thing she was there,” she mentioned.
Ryan recognized the three slain college students as Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.
Two college students had been wounded and hospitalized, Ryan mentioned.
Mike Hollins, a operating again on the soccer staff, was in steady situation Monday, his mom, Brenda Hollins, advised The Related Press.
“Mike is a fighter — and he’s exhibiting it,” she mentioned after flying to Virginia from Louisiana. “We now have nice docs who’ve been working with him. And most significantly, we’ve God’s grace and God’s fingers on him.”
The taking pictures touched off an intense manhunt that included a building-by-building search of the campus. The lockdown order was lifted late Monday morning.
Jones was taken into custody with out incident in suburban Richmond, police mentioned.
The arrest warrants for Jones charged him with three counts of second-degree homicide and three counts of utilizing a handgun within the fee of a felony, Longo mentioned.
It was not instantly clear whether or not Jones had an legal professional or when he would make his first courtroom look.
His father, Chris Jones Sr., advised Richmond TV station WTVR he was in disbelief after getting a name from police on Monday.
“My coronary heart goes out to their households. I don’t know what to say, besides I’m sorry, on his behalf, and I apologize,” he mentioned.
Jones had as soon as been on the soccer staff, however he had not been a part of the staff for no less than a yr, Longo mentioned. The UVA soccer web site listed him as a staff member throughout the 2018 season and mentioned he didn’t play in any video games.
Hours after Jones was arrested, first-year head soccer coach Tony Elliott sat alone exterior the athletic constructing utilized by the staff, at occasions together with his head in his fingers. He mentioned the victims “had been all good youngsters.”
“These treasured younger males had been referred to as away too quickly. We’re all lucky to have them be part of our lives. They touched us, impressed us and labored extremely arduous as representatives of our program, college and group,” he mentioned in a press release.
Jones got here to the eye of the college’s threat-assessment staff this fall after an individual unaffiliated with the varsity reported a comment Jones apparently made about possessing a gun, Longo mentioned.
No risk was reported together with the priority in regards to the weapon, however officers appeared into it, following up with Jones’ roommate.
Longo additionally mentioned Jones had been concerned in a “hazing investigation of some kind.” He mentioned he didn’t have all of the info and circumstances of that case, although he mentioned the probe was closed after witnesses didn’t cooperate.
As well as, officers realized a couple of prior incident exterior Charlottesville involving a weapons violation, Longo mentioned. That incident was not reported to the college because it ought to have been, he mentioned.
Em Gunter, a second-year anthropology pupil, heard three gunshots after which three extra whereas she was finding out genetics in her dorm room.
She knew instantly there was an energetic shooter exterior and advised others to go of their rooms, shut their blinds and switch off the lights. For the subsequent 12 hours, she stayed in her room with a good friend, listening to a police scanner and messaging her household and mates who had been caught in different areas of the campus.
College students know from energetic shooter drills the right way to reply, she mentioned.
“However how will we take care of it afterwards?” she requested. “What’s it going to be like in every week, in a month?”
Eva Surovell, the editor in chief of the scholar newspaper, The Cavalier Every day, famous that her technology grew up with “generalized gun violence.”
“However that doesn’t make it any simpler when it’s your individual group,” she mentioned.
Lessons and different educational actions had been canceled for Tuesday. An impromptu vigil drew a big crowd Monday night time, and a university-wide vigil was being deliberate for a later date. Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags lowered to half-staff on Tuesday in respect and reminiscence of the victims, their households and the Charlottesville group.
Scores of worshippers gathered Monday night on campus at St. Paul’s Memorial Church for a prayer service.
“Have pity on us and all who mourn for Devin, Lavel and D’Sean, harmless individuals slaughtered by the violence of our fallen world,” an officiant mentioned in prayer.
Elsewhere, police in Moscow, Idaho, had been investigating the deaths of 4 College of Idaho college students discovered Sunday in a house close to the campus. Authorities launched few particulars, besides to say that the deaths had been labeled homicides.
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Contributing to this report had been Related Press writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va.; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va.; Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md.; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Hank Kurz in Charlottesville, Va.; Holly Ramer in Harmony, New Hampshire; and information researcher Rhonda Shafner; in addition to videojournalist Nathan Ellegren and photographer Steve Helber in Charlottesville.