This image provided by Brenda Hollins by Gordon McKernan shows Mike Hollins, right, and family friend McKernan pose for a photo at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Va. Three University of Virginia football players who were shot on a bus while returning from a field trip died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The cause of death for Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler was released in response to a request from The Associated Press on Thursday. LaKeshia Johnson, Central Regional Director of the medical examiner’s office, also said the manner of death was a homicide. An outside special counsel will assist the state attorney general in his review of the University of Virginia campus shooting that left three students dead and two others wounded earlier this week, officials said Thursday. In a letter, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and University Chancellor Whit Clement asked Attorney General Jason Miares to appoint an outside counsel to investigate both UVA’s response to Sunday’s shooting and its efforts before violence to assess the potential threat. of the suspect. “After a tragedy of this nature, it is important for the affected institution to carefully consider what circumstances led to the incident and how the University responded at this time,” Clement said in a statement. “Once an external review begins, we expect it to be the main avenue through which we gain a deeper understanding of what led to this tragic event.” A criminal investigation, led by the Virginia State Police, is also ongoing. The agency, which took primary responsibility for the case Thursday, said it could not comment on a possible motive for the shooting. Miyares accepted the university’s request for an outside review, saying in a news release that he would hire a special counsel to assist his office. “A public report will be shared with students, families, the broader UVA community and government officials at the appropriate time,” Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said. “The Attorney General will work with deliberate speed while ensuring that all necessary resources remain dedicated to the criminal investigation being conducted by state and local authorities.” In its request, UVA asked the investigation to also “review all relevant University policies and procedures and make recommendations if opportunities for improvement or needs for change are identified.” UVA said the suspect, student and former football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., had been on the radar of the school’s threat assessment team since the fall. The university has also provided sometimes conflicting or incorrect statements about that group’s work during the week. Jones, 23, faces second-degree murder and other charges in the Sunday night shooting, which erupted on a charter bus returning from a trip to Washington and set off a manhunt and a 12-hour campus lockdown. Jones is currently being held without bond. A witness told police the gunman targeted specific victims, shooting one as he slept, a prosecutor told the court Wednesday during Jones’ first court appearance. Neither Jones nor his attorney addressed the charges in court. Football players Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in the violence and will be honored at a memorial service Saturday on campus. A female student who was injured has been released from the hospital. Football player Mike Hollins, who was also injured, underwent surgery and is still recovering in hospital. Hollins was “progressing positively” Thursday and hopefully will begin to take some steps, according to Joe Gipson, a family spokesman. After taking over the lead of the criminal investigation from campus police, Virginia State Police on Thursday provided the most detailed accounting yet of how authorities say the shooting unfolded. In a press release, the agency said Jones had traveled with other UVA students and a professor to Washington for a play at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The group had dinner in Washington before a professor and 22 students returned to Charlottesville, state police said. As the bus stopped in a parking garage on campus and students were getting up to leave, Jones “produced a handgun and began firing,” the news release said. As he exited the bus, he fired additional shots, fled on foot and eventually fled the area in a Dodge Durango, according to state police. “Investigators are still actively piecing together Jones’ movements since he left the scene of the shooting and was arrested in Henrico County. At this stage of the investigation, state police are unable to comment on Jones’ motive behind the shootings,” the news release said. A handgun was found in “close proximity” to the bus and no firearms were found inside, state police said. A search warrant executed at Jones’ residence in Charlottesville led to the recovery of a rifle and a handgun, according to the news release. The university said earlier this week that Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team this fall as part of a “potential hazing issue.” he said he knew nothing to do with the football program. During the threat assessment, university officials began investigating a report that Jones had a gun and discovered that Jones had previously been tried and convicted of a misdemeanor concealed weapons violation in 2021, which he had not reported, according to a statement. The school initially said it “escalated his case for disciplinary action” on October 27. But a spokesman, Brian Coy, revised the timeline Tuesday night. He said that likely due to either human or technical error, the report had not been transmitted to the University’s Justice Committee, a student-run body, until Tuesday night after the shooting.
