Three members of the current University of Virginia football team were shot and killed at the school a few hours south of the US capital on Monday, leading to the arrest and murder charge of a former college football player from the United States.
Four persons were discovered dead in a different event close to the University of Idaho in US at the same time as the most recent outbreak of gun violence on campus.
Police Chief Timothy Longo reportedly stated during a press conference that 22-year-old UVA student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the shooting on Sunday night and is now being charged with murder.
Jones was reportedly taken into custody “without incident” on Monday morning in a Richmond suburb, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Charlottesville’s UVA campus.
Jim Ryan, the president of UVA, claimed that the shooting occurred on a bus while students were returning from a field trip and that all three of those killed were football players for the school.
Ryan reported that two additional students had been hurt, one is currently in critical condition.
He said:
“This is a sad, shocking and tragic day for our UVA community. ”
My heart is broken for the victims and their families.”
While police looked for Jones, a former UVA football player listed as a first-year running back on the Cavaliers’ 2018 roster, the campus in Charlottesville, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Washington, was shut down for several hours.
Longo claimed that Jones had previously come to the notice of the school’s “threat assessment” team following an allegation that he was in possession of a pistol, although no firearm was found.
Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry, three players with the Cavaliers, were identified as the three victims.
The White House expressed its sympathies to the families of those killed in the “senseless massacre” and urged Congress to enact stricter gun control legislation.