Suspect in Custody After 3 Killed, 2 Hurt In University of Virginia Shooting

WCCB Staff, Associated Press,

(UPDATE: 11/14/22)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Authorities say the suspect in the shooting at the University of Virginia that killed three members of the football team has been taken into custody.

 

 

Classes at the university were canceled Monday, following the violence Sunday night, and the Charlottesville campus was unusually quiet as authorities searched for the suspect, who University of Virginia President Jim Ryan identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.

In aΒ letter to the universityΒ posted on social media, Ryan said the shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

The university’s emergency management issued an alert Sunday night notifying the campus community of an β€œactive attacker firearm.” The message warned students to shelter in place following a report of shots fired on Culbreth Road on the northern outskirts of campus.

Access to the shooting scene was blocked by police vehicles Monday morning. Officials urged students to shelter in place and helicopters could be heard overhead as a smattering of traffic and dog-walkers made their way around campus.

The UVA Police Department posted a notice online saying multiple police agencies including the state police were searching for a suspect who was considered β€œarmed and dangerous.”

In his letter to campus, the university president said Jones was suspected to have committed the shooting and that he was a student.

β€œThis is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” Ryan wrote. β€œThis is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community.”

Eva Surovell, 21, the editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, said that after students received an alert about an active shooter late Sunday night, she ran to the parking garage, but saw that it was blocked off by police. When she went to a nearby intersection, she was told to go shelter in place.

β€œA police officer told me that the shooter was nearby and I needed to return home as soon as possible,” she said.

She waited with other reporters, hoping to get additional details, then returned to her room to start working on the story. The gravity of the situation sunk in.

β€œMy generation is certainly one that’s grown up with generalized gun violence, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your own community,” she said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents were responding to the campus to assist in the investigation.

The Virginia shooting came as police were investigating theΒ deaths of four University of Idaho studentsΒ found Sunday in a home near the campus. Officers with the Moscow Police Department discovered the deaths when they responded to a report of an unconscious person just before noon, according to a news release from the city. Authorities have called the deaths suspected homicides but did not release additional details, including the cause of death.

On April 16, 2007, another Virginia university was the scene of what was then one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech were gunned down by Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old mentally ill student who later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) β€” Three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at a parking garage at the University of Virginia, according to the school’s president, and police searched Monday for a student who was a suspect.

The shooting around 10:30 p.m. Sunday “resulted in three fatalities; two additional victims were injured and are receiving medical care,” President Jim Ryan said in a letter to the university community posted on social media. He identified the suspect as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.

The university’s emergency management issued an alert on Sunday night notifying the campus community of an “active attacker firearm.” The message warned students to shelter in place following a report of shots fired on Culbreth Road on the northern outskirts of campus. Classes were canceled Monday.

The UVA Police Department posted a notice online saying multiple police agencies including the state police were searching for a suspect who was considered “armed and dangerous.”

In his letter to campus, the university president said Jones was suspected to have committed the shooting. The campus emergency management twitter account said that he was believed to be wearing blue jeans and a burgundy jacket and driving a black SUV with Virginia tags.

The university’s emergency management Twitter account said shortly before 7 a.m. that “a complete search on and around UVA Grounds” by law enforcement was underway and urged people on campus to remain sheltered.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents were responding to the campus to assist in the investigation.

Ryan’s letter confirmed that the suspect, who he said was a student, was still at large Monday morning.
“This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” Ryan wrote. “This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community.”

Here is an update from the university about an active shooter on campus.