University of Virginia confirms identities of 3 football players killed in shooting

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WRIC) -- The identities of three people killed in a shooting on the University of Virginia's campus Sunday night have been confirmed.

Lavel Davis Jr., D'Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were fatally shot, the University of Virginia confirmed at a press conference Monday morning. All three were members of UVA's football team.

“They were all good kids,” head football coach Tony Elliott said early Monday afternoon. He said he would talk about the victims “when the time is right."

Police arrested the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., in suburban Richmond, police said.

Two additional victims were taken to the hospital with injuries, with one in critical condition and the other in good condition, according to the school.

The death of Davis, a junior and wide receiver on the UVA football team, was acknowledged in a tweet confirmed by his cousin Sean Lampkin, a coach and recruiting coordinator for Newberry College in South Carolina.

Davis came to UVA from South Carolina, where he played wide receiver and safety at Woodland High School in Dorchester County. As a high school senior, Davis was an all-state wide receiver.

A native of south Florida, Perry was a junior linebacker and defensive end. He came to the school after a decorated high school career, winning the South Florida Conference 2018 Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at Gulliver Prep in Miami.

Chandler was a junior wide receiver and kick returner. He played football at Arlington High School in the Memphis area, as well as William Amos Hough High School near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Before coming to UVA, Chandler played wide receiver and kick returner for two years at the University of Wisconsin.

“Once a badger, always a badger,” University of Wisconsin interim head coach and Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard tweeted Monday in the wake of Chandler's death.

“He had a lasting impact on his teammates, even after he left UW, which is a testament to the type of person he was," Leonhard wrote. “His personality was infectious and he was a joy to be around. Our team is hurting for him and his family.”

Chandler had not yet taken the field for UVA, according to the team's website.

The shooting happened just after 10:15 p.m. Sunday as a charter bus full of students returned from seeing a play in Washington.

University President Jim Ryan said authorities did not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the shooting.

“The entire university community is grieving this morning,” a visibly strained Ryan said. “My heart is broken for the victims and their families and for all those who knew and loved them."

Authorities obtained arrest warrants for Jones charging him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, Longo said.

Jones had once been on the football team, but had not been on the team for at least a year, Longo said. The UVA football website listed him as a team member during the 2018 season and said he did not play in any games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.