According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, three University of Virginia football players who were shot on a bus as they returned from a field trip all died from gunshot wounds to the head.
Thursday, The Associated Press was granted access to the cause of death for Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry, and Devin Chandler. LaKeshia Johnson, the Central District Administrator of the medical examiner’s office, also stated in an email that homicide was the cause of death.
The students were shot as they returned to college late on a Sunday evening after seeing a play and having dinner in Washington. Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a student at the University of Virginia and former member of the football team who was on the trip, allegedly began shooting passengers as the charter bus pulled into the school parking garage.
Jones, 23, is charged with second-degree murder and other offenses related from the shooting, which prompted a manhunt and a 12-hour campus lockdown before his capture in suburban Richmond. Jones’s bond has been denied.
A prosecutor stated on Wednesday, during Jones’ initial court appearance, that a witness told police that the gunman targeted specific victims, shooting one while he slept. Two further pupils were injured. In court, neither Jones nor his counsel addressed the charges.
Officials announced on Thursday that a special counsel from outside the state will assist the attorney general in investigating the shooting.
Wide receiver at the University of Virginia was Lavel Davis Jr.
AP
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and University Rector Whitt Clement requested in a letter that Attorney General Jason Miyares seek outside counsel to evaluate UVA’s response to the shooting as well as attempts prior to the incident to analyze the possible threat posed by the suspect.
Clement stated in a statement, “After a tragedy of this nature, it is vital for the impacted institution to take a close look at what circumstances led up to the incident and how the University responded in the moment.”
Miyares granted the university’s request for an external assessment and stated that he would solicit the assistance of special counsel for his office.
Miyares spokesman Victoria LaCivita stated in a statement, “A public report will be provided with students, families, the greater UVA community, and government officials at the proper time.”
During his snooze, Devin Chandler was shot, according to prosecutors.
AP
UVA has stated that Jones has been on the threat assessment team’s radar since the autumn. Throughout the week, the institution has also released occasionally contradictory or incorrect comments regarding the team’s work.
On campus, a memorial service will be held on Saturday to remember Davis, Perry, and Chandler. An wounded female student has already been released from the hospital. Also injured football player Mike Hollins underwent surgery and is healing in the hospital.
Joe Gipson, a family spokesperson, stated that Hollins was “progressing favorably” as of Thursday and will hopefully begin to walk.
Thursday, Hollins’ mother revealed in an interview with ESPN that her son initially thought he heard balloons popping on the bus before he spotted Jones. Hollins then called for the bus driver to stop, and he and two other kids ran off the bus.
The Cavaliers’ D’Sean Perry was in the middle of his junior year.
Virginia’s Commonwealth University
Brenda Hollins stated : Hollins quickly determined that no more pupils had escaped the bus and ran back to assist. On the first step of the bus, her son observed Jones waving a gun at him, forcing Hollins to turn and flee.
Brenda Hollins stated, “All he remembers is that he tried to turn, but saw him raise the pistol.” “And he felt his back becoming hot … As he ran, he pulled up his shirt and saw the bullet protruding from his stomach.
Thursday, after taking over the criminal investigation from campus police, Virginia State Police released the most comprehensive description to date of what transpired.
The agency stated in a press release that Jones had flown to Washington with other students and a professor to attend a play at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. State police say the group had dinner together before a professor and 22 students returned to Charlottesville.
According to the announcement, when the bus came up to the school parking garage and students prepared to exit, Jones “produced a pistol and began firing.” According to state police, after he disembarked the bus he fired further shots, fled on foot, and eventually escaped the area in a Dodge Durango.
The news release stated that investigators are still “piecemealing together Jones’ movements between the time he fled the shooting site and the time he was caught” in the Richmond region, and that they are unable to remark on a motive.
A handgun was found in “close proximity” to the bus, but none were found inside, according to state police. According to the news release, a search warrant issued at Jones’ apartment in Charlottesville led to the recovery of a rifle and a handgun.
Jones drew the notice of the university’s threat assessment team this fall in the context of a “possible hazing concern,” the institution stated earlier this week. The University of Virginia has declined to elaborate on the suspected hazing event.
During their threat assessment review, university officials investigated a complaint that Jones possessed a firearm and discovered he had been tried and convicted of a misdemeanor concealed weapons offense in 2021, which he had neglected to register, according to a statement.
The school initially stated on October 27 that it “escalated his case for disciplinary action.” Tuesday night, however, a spokesperson, Brian Coy, changed the timeframe. He stated that a human or technical error likely delayed the report’s transmission to the University Judiciary Committee, a student-run organization, until Tuesday night, after the shooting.