Wide receivers Devin Chandler (left) and Lavel Davis Jr. (right) were killed on Sunday along with linebacker D'Sean Perry (center). They had just returned to Virginia from Washington DC when they were killed
University Police Chief Timothy Longo said authorities secured an arrest warrant charging Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the alleged commission of a felony in the deaths of D'Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr.
Authorities speaking at a news conference declined to name the two wounded victims. University President Jim Ryan revealed that one was in good condition and that the other was in critical condition.
Suspect: Chris Darnell Jones was arrested on Monday
"Keep praying!!! And please keep praying for all of the families that are going through this horrific tragedy," she wrote in the tweet.
Jones, 22, was taken into custody by Henrico County police in Richmond "without incident" just before 11 a.m., about 75 miles southeast of the university's campus, the police department said.
He is a former member of the football team. He was listed on the 2018 roster shared on the official website of the Virginia Cavaliers but did not appear on the roster in any following seasons.
Shooting unfolded on school bus returning from seeing a play
Gunfire was reported at a parking garage on Culbreth Road, near the school's drama building, around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, the university's Office of Emergency Management said in a tweet.
Ryan said at a news conference Monday morning that the shooting happened on a school bus full of students returning from a field trip. The trip, to see a play in Washington, D.C., was associated with a class, officials said.
The victims are believed to have traveled back to Virginia from Washington DC on this bus. It's unclear if the gunman fired into the bus or if he attacked players when they disembarked but two of the three victims were onboard
A manhunt was launched for the suspect, and students were issued warnings earlier to "RUN HIDE FIGHT" and shelter in place. A search was conducted on and around the campus grounds early Monday, the emergency management office said, involving multiple agencies, including a Virginia State Police helicopter.
The shelter-in-place order was lifted around 10:30 a.m. after "a thorough search on and around" the grounds.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said early Monday that it was assisting in the investigation.
"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 said in an email to students.
The suspect was once on the football team, school was told that he had a gun
During the search, university police shared a photo of Jones and warned people not to approach him, saying he was considered "armed and dangerous."
The same photo appears on a profile for Jones on the Virginia Cavaliers' 2018 football roster. The profile says he did not appear in any games that year.
His mother, who is identified in public records as Margo Ellis, said in a phone call Monday that her son has lived with his grandmother since he was 16 and that she did not know his whereabouts or what might have contributed to the shooting.
Officials said Monday that Jones had landed on the radar of school authorities in previous years.
Longo said Monday that in September, the Office of Student Affairs received information that Jones had made a comment about possessing a gun to a person unaffiliated with the university. The office flagged that to a multidisciplinary threat assessment team affiliated with the university.
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