University President Jim Ryan issued a statement early Monday confirming that the suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., was “one of our students.” Shelter-in-place texts were sent around 10:40 p.m. Sunday night after the attack, with the University of Virginia Police Department maintaining order until Monday morning. Multiple agencies were searching for Jones, who police said was armed and dangerous. Jones is listed on the university’s athletics website as a 2018 football player who did not appear in any games, although it is unclear if he remains a student at UVA. Jones’ mother, Margo Ellis, told The Daily Beast she is “not talking to reporters right now” when reached by phone Monday. While authorities have not yet released the identities of the victims, D’Sean Perry’s father confirmed to Charlottesville’s Daily Progress that his son was among those killed. Perry, 22, was a linebacker who also played for the Virginia Cavaliers college football team. His father, Sean Perry, said D’Sean was shot in a parking lot in the campus’s Culbreth Garage. He added that he and Sean’s mother, Happy Perry, were flying to Virginia from their hometown of Miami on Monday. A second football player, Lovell Davis Jr., was identified as another of the victims by his cousin. The wide receiver was named by Newbury College assistant football coach Sean Lampkin in a tweet Monday. “Sad, sad news this morning,” Lumpkin wrote. “God took one of his most gentle, humble, loving soldiers from the battlefield last night. Please pray for my family as we are devastated by the death of my cousin Lavel Davis Jr. Love and miss you already, baby.” The motive for the attack remains unclear. In a 2018 article about Jones, the Richmond Times-Dispatch painted a picture of a difficult childhood marked by “a broken family, school fights and suspensions.” Jones told the paper that his father leaving when Jones was just five years old was “one of the most traumatic things that happened to me”. The article added that Jones attended an alternative school where he was able to avoid bullying and that he had moved with his grandmother to Petersburg in 2016 after his relationship with his mother deteriorated. He also said that in the two years before he started at UVA, “the mentors helped him get rid of his anger.” UVA canceled classes Monday as the shelter-in-place order remained in effect, though the order was lifted around 10:30 a.m. “based on a thorough investigation in and around” college grounds, the UVA Police Department said. Charlottesville City Schools also canceled classes for its 4,000 student body. In a message to staff and families, the school system said the decision was made “in order to give police time to investigate while they search for the suspect in our community.” On Monday, Virginia Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine shared messages of support for the victims’ families. “I think everyone was affected by the tragic act of violence on UVA’s campus,” Warner wrote. “Shocked to hear of another Virginia community devastated by gun violence,” Kaine tweeted. “We are praying for the UVA community and monitoring the situation closely.” He added: “We must take further steps to make our communities safer.”
