Home Update: Father identifies Mike Hollins as one of two wounded in mass shooting at UVA
Sports News

Update: Father identifies Mike Hollins as one of two wounded in mass shooting at UVA

Chris Graham
mike hollins
UVA tailback Mike Hollins. Photo: UVA Athletics

UVA Football student-athlete Mike Hollins is in stable condition after being shot in the back in a mass shooting that killed three of his teammates.

Hollins’ father, Mike Hollins Sr., confirmed his son’s condition in an interview with the Washington Post, in which he said he has been told by doctors that his son is expected to recover.

The father said he got a call while he was at his job as a Fairfax city bus inspector just before midnight Sunday informing him that his son had been a victim in the shooting, and he immediately drove to Charlottesville, arriving at UVA Hospital around 2 a.m.

The shooting happened at the end of a field trip to Washington, D.C., involving members of a theatre department class at UVA.

Mike Hollins Sr. said he was told by officials that the alleged shooter, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former UVA Football player who was still a student at the university, had carried a gun on the field trip, and when they returned to Grounds, he began firing at his classmates on the bus.

“He waited until they all got back to Charlottesville, and he just shot up the bus,” Hollins Sr. said.

Jones was arrested in Henrico County late Monday morning, and he has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder, with additional charges likely pending.

The three student-athletes who were killed have been identified as Lavel Davis Jr., a third-year student who was a freshman All-America at wideout in 2020; D’Sean Perry, a fourth-year student from Miami who was a linebacker; and Devin Chandler, a third-year Huntersville, N.C., native who had transferred to UVA in the spring after playing his first two college seasons at Wisconsin.

According to authorities, Davis and Perry were found dead on the bus. Chandler was transported to UVA Hospital, where he later died.

There was a fifth shooting victim, who has not been identified. UVA President Jim Ryan said at an 11 a.m. press conference that there was another victim who had survived but was in critical condition.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].