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The University of Virginia student charged in the death of three football players shot one of the victims while he was sleeping, according to prosecutors.
On Wednesday (November 16), 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. made his first court appearance via video from jail after a shooting left UVa football players Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr. dead and two other students injured, NBC News reports.
Prosecutor James Hingeley of the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office described facts in the case, in which Jones is facing three counts of second-degree murder, five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and two counts of malicious wounding in connection with the campus carnage.
Hingeley said Jones shot Chandler while the victim was sleeping, according to a witness. The witness reported that Jones was targeting “certain people” and “not randomly shooting,” Hingeley added.
The fatal incident unfolded Sunday (November 13) night after Jones and a group of classmates returned to campus from a field trip to watch a play in Washington, D.C., UVa spokesperson Brian Coy has said. According to officials, gunshots were reported at a parking garage near the school’s drama building where the students were dropped off.
The shooter fled the scene, prompting a manhunt and shelter-in-place order that lasted nearly 12 hours. Henrico County police caught the suspect about 75 miles away from the Charlottesville campus.
Of the two students who survived the shooting, one remains hospitalized in serious condition and the other was being discharged Tuesday (November 15), University of Virginia Health spokesperson Eric Swensen said.
The university community is reeling from the loss of Chandler, Perry, and Davis Jr. UVa canceled classes Tuesday and its final home football game of the season Wednesday in the wake of the shooting. Perry was a linebacker on the team, and Chandler and Davis Jr. were both wide receivers.
The suspected shooter was listed on the 2018 football roster on the Cavaliers’ website. According to his profile, he did not appear in any games.
No bond was set during Jones’ first court appearance. He is due back in court on December 8.
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