CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The suspect in the shooting at the University of Virginia that killed three members of the football team has been taken into custody, according to police. The suspect in the Sunday night shooting, identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was arrested Monday morning in eastern Henrico, according to police.
"[Henrico Police] has been following the developments by UVA Police regarding last night’s shooting. During the overnight hours, our patrol bureau across the county was on the lookout for the vehicle Christopher Jones was believed to be driving," a Henrico Police spokesperson shared in an email. "This morning, an officer spotted the vehicle in Henrico’s eastern area of the county. Jones was subsequently safely taken into custody, without incident."
A previous email indicated he was located in the 5700 block of Edgelawn Street.
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan identified the slain student-athletes as D'Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr., and Devin Chandler. Two others were wounded in the shooting, which happened on a bus of students who were returning from an off-campus trip.
Jones, 22, was also a UVA student and previously had been a member of the football team.
He attended both Varina High School in Henrico and Petersburg High School where he was a football player, it indicated.
Police 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, University of Virginia Police Chief Tim Longo said.
Jones had once played on the football team, but he had not been a member of the team for at least a year, Longo said.
Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team this fall after a person unaffiliated with the school reported a remark Jones apparently made about possessing a gun, Longo said.
No threat was reported in conjunction with the concern about the weapon, but officials looked into it, following up with Jones’ roommate.
Longo also said Jones had been involved in a “hazing investigation of some sort.” He said he did not have all the facts and circumstances of that case, though he said the probe was closed after witnesses failed to cooperate.
In addition, officials learned about a prior incident outside Charlottesville involving a weapons violation, Longo said. That incident was not reported to the university as it should have been, he said.
A 2018 Richmond Times-Dispatch profile on Jones noted he grew up in Richmond's Essex Village and Mosby Court communities before his parents divorced [when he was five].
“My dad and me were really close. It just hurt me when he had to leave,” he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in a 2018 interview. “That was one of the most traumatic things that happened to me in my life. I didn’t understand why he left."
He told the paper that getting in fights at school was a way to relieve stress.
His family moved to Varina for his middle school years. He moved to Petersburg to live with his grandmother in 2016 for a "new start."
In high school, he also was a member of the National Honors Society, president of the Key Club, and named Student of the Year at Varina.
The online bio said he "did not appear in any games" at UVA in 2018 and offered no update beyond that year.
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