CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Three University of Virginia football players killed in an on-campus shooting were remembered Monday by their head coach as “incredible young men with huge aspirations and extremely bright futures.”
Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry were juniors returning to campus from a class trip to see a play Sunday night when authorities say they were killed by a fellow student.
The young men were members of the Virginia football team, journeying through periods of transition in their careers — whether it was bouncing back from a season-ending injury, changing positions on the team or transferring in from another school.
“They touched us, inspired us and worked incredibly hard,” head football coach Tony Elliott said in a statement.
Their absence was already being felt on campus, prompting American studies professor Jack Hamilton to tweet that he was “just stunned and devastated and completely at a loss.”
Hamilton had Chandler and Davis as students.
“In my experience, star athletes often tend to hang out with other athletes (understandable, given the time commitment),” Hamilton wrote. “But (Davis) seemed to go out of his way to make friends with non-athletes.”
As the tragedy reverberated throughout the campus, the head football coach was seen sitting alone at a table outside the university’s football offices, his head in his hands.
“They were all good kids,” Elliott said before getting into an SUV with several other coaches.
A couple hours later, teammate Aaron Faumui spoke briefly through tears.
“I don’t even know what to say right now,” said the college senior who plays defensive tackle. “I just want to say they were three young great men.”
The grief was felt widely, penetrating football programs across the country — in part because college athletes can move around more with the easing of transfer restrictions. Players from Wisconsin to Utah and Washington state mourned because they had played at Virginia.
“Can’t put into words the physical and mental pain that comes with losing not just teammates, but brothers,” tweeted Wayne Taulapapa, a running back who transferred from Virginia to the University of Washington. “You were never just football players, but rather examples of great and honorable young men.”
The shooting happened just after 10:15 p.m. Sunday as a charter bus full of students returned from seeing a play in Washington, D.C.. University President Jim Ryan said authorities did not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Police on Monday captured a university student, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, whom they say is suspected of shooting the three football players and wounding two others. Jones had once played on the football team, but had not been a member of the team for at least a year, police said.
On Monday morning, Lavel Davis Sr. posted a message on Facebook: “Lord please help me.”
