Home Update: The latest on what we know about the shooting deaths of three UVA Football players
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Update: The latest on what we know about the shooting deaths of three UVA Football players

Chris Graham
uva football players murdered 2022
Photos courtesy UVA Athletics website

Three UVA Football student-athletes are dead, a fourth is in stable condition, and a former football team member is in custody in the wake of a mass shooting on Grounds late Sunday night.

Here’s everything we know

The student-athletes who passed were:

  • Lavel Davis Jr., a third-year student who was a standout wide receiver on the team, and was a freshman All-America in 2020.
  • D’Sean Perry, a fourth-year student from Miami, Fla. Perry was a graduate of Gulliver Prep, which was also the alma mater of former University of Miami and Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor, who was shot and killed in his Miami home in 2007.
  • Devin Chandler, a third-year student from Huntersville, N.C., who had transferred to UVA in the spring after playing his first two college seasons at Wisconsin.

Also injured in the shooting was a fourth UVA Football student-athlete, Mike Hollins, a fourth-year student who is a tailback on the team, and is currently in stable condition, according to his father, Mike Hollins Sr., after suffering a gunshot wound in his back.

A fifth student who has not been identified is in critical condition at UVA Hospital, according to University of Virginia President Jim Ryan.

What happened?

The students had been on a field trip to Washington, D.C., on Sunday, associated with two classes – DRAM 1010, How Theatre Works, and DRAM 3070, African-Americans in Theater.

Chandler, Davis and Perry were enrolled in the DRAM 1010 class, and we’ve confirmed that there were other UVA student-athletes enrolled in that class as well, though we haven’t been able to get any information on whether or not the other student-athletes were on the bus trip.

According to Mike Hollins Sr., the bus carrying the students had returned to Grounds when Jones, who was a walk-on on the football team as a first-year student in 2018, opened fire.

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

The shooting happened around 10:16 p.m. in the area of a parking garage on Culbreth Road, according to UVA Police Chief Tim Longo.

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

Jones fled the scene, and the University was put on lockdown, with students and other residents of the Grounds area told to shelter in place.

That warning held through the 10 a.m. hour as police conducted a building-by-building search of the area.

Shortly before 11 a.m., Jones, a graduate of Petersburgh High School who had attended Varina High School for three years before transferring for his senior year, was arrested without incident in Henrico County.

Jones is facing three second-degree murder charges, and it is assumed that additional charges are pending.

Background on Jones

Longo said in a Monday press conference that Jones was the subject of a report to a UVA threat-assessment team earlier this fall, with a person who Longo said was not associated with the University reporting that Jones had a weapon.

An investigation was not able to confirm that Jones had a weapon, and there were no threats associated with the original report, Longo said.

Longo also mentioned something in the press conference about Jones being involved in a hazing investigation, without offering further detail.

Jones was a walk-on football player as a first-year student in 2018, though he did not appear in any games that season, and it’s not clear why he was no longer part of the program after the 2018 season, though it isn’t necessarily anything sinister, given that he had been a walk-on.

According to a bio still active on the VirginiaSports.com website, Jones had been a linebacker and running back in high school, in addition to being a member of the National Honor Society, the National Technical Honor Society, the president of the Key Club and the Jobs for Virginia Grads Program, and he had been named the Student of the Year at Varina High School as a freshman and sophomore.

There are reports referring to a 2018 profile of Jones by the Times-Dispatch detailing how Jones lashed out after his parents divorced, with him getting into fights in school leading to suspensions.

We’re noting that here, but it doesn’t seem like something that is automatically pertinent to the story involving the shooting deaths.

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].