3 football players killed in University of Virginia shooting

VIRGINIA: Police in the mid-Atlantic state of Virginia have arrested a suspect in a shooting at the University of Virginia that left three members of the college’s football team dead.

University police said during a news conference Monday that the shooting took place Sunday night on a bus filled with students who were returning from an off-campus trip.

The shooting prompted authorities to lock down the University of Virginia’s campus in Charlottesville, telling students and staff to shelter in place for hours as they conducted a search for the suspect.

University President James Ryan identified the suspect as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a student at the college who had played for U.Va.’s football team in 2018.

The suspect has been charged with three counts each of second-degree murder and committing a felony with a firearm.

Ryan told reporters at a news conference that two other students were wounded in the shooting and said one was in critical condition.

In a statement earlier Monday, Ryan said, “This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community, and we have canceled classes for today. This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” he wrote.

Ryan said authorities did not yet have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Campus police chief Tim Longo said the suspect was known to campus police after someone alleged he had a weapon in the fall of 2022. Campus police investigated but were not able to confirm Jones had a firearm.

(VOA)