Authorities say the suspect in the University of Virginia shooting that killed three members of the football team has been arrested.
The suspect in the Sunday night shooting has been identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. The three players killed have been confirmed to be Lavelle Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and Desann Berry, according to multiple reports.
Two others were wounded in the shooting, which took place on a student bus returning from an off-campus trip.
Classes at the university were canceled on Monday, following Sunday night’s violence. In a message to the university posted on social media, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan said the shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
The university’s Emergency Management issued an alert Sunday night notifying the campus community of the presence of an “active attacking firearm.” The letter warned students to take cover after receiving a report of shootings on Coolbrith Road in the northern suburbs of campus.
Police vehicles blocked access to the shooting site on Monday morning. Officials urged students to take cover, and helicopters could be heard overhead as traffic jammed and dog walkers made their way around campus.
The UVA Police Department posted a notice online saying that several police agencies, including the state police, were looking for a suspect deemed “armed and dangerous.”
In his message to campus, the university’s president said he suspected Jones of committing the shooting and that he was a student.
“This is a message any leader would hope they never have to send, and I am devastated that such violence has visited the University of Virginia,” Ryan wrote. “This is a painful incident for everyone in our community.”
Eva Sorouvel, 21, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, said that after students received an alert about an active shooter late Sunday night, she ran to the parking garage, only to see it had been blocked by police. When she went to a nearby intersection, she was told to take cover.
“A police officer told me that the shooter was nearby and that I needed to get home as soon as possible,” she said.
She waited with the other reporters, hoping for additional details, then returned to her room to begin work on the story. The seriousness of the situation sank.
“My generation is definitely a generation that grew up on generalized gun violence, but it doesn’t make it any easier when that’s your community,” she said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents were responding to the campus to assist in the investigation.
The shooting in Virginia came as police were investigating the deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found Sunday in a home near campus. Officers from the Moscow Police Department discovered the deaths when they responded to a report of an unconscious person just before noon, according to a city news release. Authorities described the deaths as suspected homicides but did not release additional details, including the cause of death.
On April 16, 2007, another university in Virginia was the scene of one of the deadliest shootings in US history. Twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech were shot and killed by Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old mentally ill student who later died of his self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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