Update: the suspect was taken into custody around 11:30 AM Eastern Time by Virginia police. All three individuals killed in the shooting on Sunday have been confirmed as Virginia football players. Virginia president Jim Ryan said the shooting occurred on a bus full of students returning from a field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C. Two of the players were found dead on the bus, and one was pronounced dead at the medical center.
Staff and team members from the University of Virginia swimming & diving programs are all safe and accounted for amid an ongoing shooting event on campus, SwimSwam has been told on Monday morning.
Classes were canceled Monday a day after three were shot and killed on campus around 10:30 PM on Sunday, while 2 others were injured. The shooter, who is still at-large, has been identified by university president Jim Ryan as former University of Virginia football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.
Jones, who is a current student at Virginia, was a member of the football team as a freshman in 2018, but did not play in any games, according to his online bio.
All three victims who were killed have been confirmed as members of the football team. Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry, and Devin Chandler have been named by family members on social media as those killed by the shooter.
The latest information from university president Jim Ryan:
An update on the active shooter incident at UVA: pic.twitter.com/LLshF8JJcR
— Jim Ryan (@presjimryan) November 14, 2022
Police say that Jones was last seen wearing a burgundy jacket and blue jeans and red shoes, driving a black SUV with a Virginia license plate reading TWX3580.
In these tragic moments what comes next is a tragic walk-forward of whataboutas & other garden variety horrid reasons for carrying high capacity rifles around in civic life. Remarkably it on the steps of The Rotunda at UVa where none other than James Madison (you know, the guy who wrote the Constitution & the Bill of Rights) was the swing vote as a member of UVA’s Board of Regents to pass a proposition forwarded by Thomas Jefferson (former President & one the the vaunted founders/originalists? yeah, same guy) to ban firearms in the academical village of UVa. Here’s the citation:
https://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=FOEA-print-04-02-02-4598
The entire not infringed adults playing with finger paint interpretation devined as never… Read more »
Me reading the news: school shooting
Me: oh, just another day in good ole America 🇺🇲
Thank the lord the swimmers are safe from this atrocity. Hopefully UVA’s regular operations etc. will resume soon. What a tragedy:( Poor cavaliers.
Before we get all wrapped up in the gun control debate let’s please take a moment to address some major problems in this story. This is a tragedy that in all likelihood could have been easily prevented and my fear is that everyone will get caught up in the gun control debate and not ask the tough questions of the University of Virginia and start making changes now. The suspect in the shooting was already on the radar of the police and once again it’s a failure of our officials to connect the dots and protect us from senseless violence like this. Here we have a situation where a young man already had a criminal record one of which involved… Read more »
Just to clarify and expand upon a few things for people who aren’t going to read about this beyond this comment:
-The “gun crime” was a concealed weapon violation in February 2021, and as soon as UVa found out about that (much more recently), they opened a disciplinary hearing. That disciplinary hearing had not yet concluded when these shootings happened last night. In Virginia, that’s a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries up to 12 months in jail and a fine. In many states, that would not have been a crime. Over the last year, similar laws in other states have been struck down by courts after a June Supreme Court decision.
-He was “on police radar” (which was the… Read more »
To clarify your clarification:
- He should have been expelled from UVA the minute they found out about the concealed conviction. Because a.) he didn’t disclose it as required under the honor code at UVA, and b.) because it was a gun charge. Also, the laws that were stuck down in other states are immaterial to this conversation because the concealed carry laws in Virginia are “shall issue” which is the basis of the issue with the other states. There is no conflict in Virginia with the SC decision.
- You are missing the point on the “police radar”. The point is with a little digging, the PD would have found out about the CW conviction 6/21 and would have
… Read more »I have not seen any reporting about a felony conviction in October 2021. I just spent 20 minutes looking for it and didn’t find any such information reported anywhere. Do you have a source for that? That certainly changes the calculus and conversation here, but so far I haven’t found that information.
Also, it’s easy to say that the university should eliminate due process, but pragmatically, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
http://ewsocis1.courts.state.va.us/CJISWeb/MainMenu.do Search under Petersburg Circuit. Misdemeanor reckless and Felony leaving the scene of an accident…so actually I was wrong, he has three suspended sentences, and not one day of jail time. And, btw “Also, it’s easy to say that the university should eliminate due process, but pragmatically, that’s not as easy as it sounds”….Virginia has a red flag law which should have certainly been triggered here, not to mention that the discovery of the gun charge should have led to (at the minimum) a temporary suspension which is authorized by the by-laws of UVA.
Pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor. So, not a felony.
So you want him to have due process but we should immediately take guns away from lawful gun owners? That makes sense.
Did you mean to send this reply to me? Feels like you’re responding to something I didn’t say.
In your ideal world, everyone will be accompanied by a cop for 12 hours a day. For the other 12, you are the cop.
Only then will our guns truly be free.
Guns are free, people are not.
Sounds like America way of life to me
I cannot for the life of me figure out why people cannot look at the constitution as a fluid document. That’s why there are amendments.
A shocking amount of American civic life is based on fairy tales and myopia.
“The American system of government is the greatest ever created, has been since its inception and will be forever; there is no other system but ours.”
My condolences to all family, friends, and teammates of the victims.
Senseless.
As Americans we will continue to do nothing about gun violence. We always have blame to assign and fear to monger all while people die just like the day before.
We could start by enforcing the existing gun laws on the books. If you haven’t noticed, many localities have gone extremely lax on consequences for crimes committed with guns. There are countless articles on people committing gun violence that shouldn’t have been on the streets in the first place.
Most of the mass shootings in this country, including Uvalde, involved guns that were legally obtained. Look it up – according to the NYT, 77% of mass shooters between 1966 and 2019 obtained the guns through legal purchases. I’m all for enforcing existing gun laws, but the mass shootings will continue here as long as people can buy guns so easily. If you think otherwise, you’re fooling yourself…
And a large amount of those legal gun purchases had HUGE red flags. The dude in Uvalde did everything but sit on a street corner with a 3×5 telling people what he was going to do.
So WCR, you agree we should impose and enforce stricter laws in purchasing guns? It sounds like that’s what you’re saying. A mandatory, comprehensive background check, denying sales to individuals who have made threats or committed violent acts – and the time for the seller to complete such a check? I think the guy who sold him the guns did everything he was required to do by law.
I can’t speak for all states, but Virginia already requires all of the things you mentioned.
Great. I wish all states had at least the gun sales restrictions currently in place in Virginia. Do you agree? After they were passed in 2020, former President Trump tweeted “Liberate Virginia, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” That kind of thinking is why we continue to have lax gun sales laws elsewhere – and why a 18 yr old in Texas was able to legally buy two AR rifles and 375 rounds of 5.65 caliber ammunition before shooting up an elementary school in Uvalde.
Restricting gun sales is one possible way to reduce gun violence, but it is at least conceivable that we might strike closer to the root of the problem by trying to improve mental health throughout the culture. A few ideas:
- Ranked choice voting tends to support less extremism.
- Better funding for education from pre-school through college creates a healthier experience for students, parents, and educators. (Together those three groups make up about half the population.)
- Closing some tax loopholes and a somewhat higher rate for corporations and high earners would fund government while making us less winner-take-all.
- Greater taxes on products that research consistently shows are unhealthy: tobacco, alcohol, social media
- Greater investment in public facilities that
… Read more »Don’t confuse him with the facts.
University of Idaho had 4 students murdered in their off campus housing this weekend too. And I think they have a swim team too! Thoughts and prayers for all deaths at schools!
the thoughts and prayers don’t do anything. did you make a difference by voting?
As a matter of fact, I did. But what does that have to do with having compassion for those who are currently suffering? We are likely on the same side when it comes to gun control, but offers of condolence are appropriate now; political action is appropriate, too, just not prior to addressing the immediate impact of the current tragedy.
You’re right. These circumstances make many, including myself, irate. As US citizen, waking up to these headlines, often many times a month, is exhausting. Seeing people say “my condolences”, “thoughts and prayers”, is losing value.
Mostly because many of these situations are completely avoidable.
Apologies for coming across as crass.
If you’re suggesting that SS did something wrong here, there’s definitely a different level of newsworthiness on a swimming website for an active shooter at UVA vs. what happened in Idaho (which we have no idea what happened)
I think he’s saying they SS used this as click bait. This guy only went street football players he knew from his time on the football team and saw around campus. Swimmers were not in danger.
People like to say “clickbait” to make themselves feel savvy, but ironically, it’s used wrong 80% of the time, which makes you supes unsavvy.
Didn’t Branden say that they didn’t know the victims were football players when it was published?
FWIW – which I acknowledge is nearly nothing – the first information I heard about this tragic incident was that the shooter targeted “athletes.” In light of that rumor, I understand the swimming community circulating the news that all of the UVA swimmers were safe.
Ironically, through personal connections, I do have an idea of what happened at Idaho. And the information I have indicates that the swim team was not at any risk.
But yes, as VOTE said, there is a newsworthiness difference between “a shooter has been on the loose at Virginia and targeted student-athletes” and what happened at Idaho, which was not a shooting (or stabbing or any other kind of violence).
Please also remember that when this article was originally published, the shooter was still at-large and the identities of all of the victims was not known.
1) Let’s discuss “murder” because it’s pretty clear to me that Idaho was a drug overdose
2) No one is in custody and the police department said it “does not believe there is an ongoing community risk.”
3) What a weird comment
4) What is your bone? You always seem to be picking it in the comments.
The victims have stab wounds…
Good guy with a gun was off today, authorities say
Don’t turn this tragedy political
It was political the moment the ink dried on the 2nd Amendment.
Don’t tell me — it’s too soon?
How about too soon for VaTech? Uvalde?
Have a dose of thoughts and prayers. I’m sure that will take care of everything.
It’s not too soon. Obviously, it’s too late.
So, to clarify, are you advocating for giving organized crime a monopoly on guns? You might want to read a history of the 18th amendment (Prohibition), and the rate of violent crime during the time it was law.
Other than the fact that you’re politically conservative (now having shown a pattern between this and your Lia T comments), I’m not sure I follow what point you’re trying to make here? Everyone still had guns during Prohibition. There was tons of gun violence, driven by organized crime, as you say.
The result was proposals to ban fully automatic guns. Sound familiar? They stayed away from it not because of 2A, but because of interstate commerce, ironically enough.
Instead they produced the country’s first national gun laws, which were SUPPORTED BY THE NRA.
… Read more »The point is that the gun trade isn’t going away anymore than the alcohol trade did. More restrictive gun laws simply create more opportunity for criminal organizations to fill the void, just as they did with alcohol.
I’ma call you STREEEEEETTTTCCHHHH Armstrong from now on because that’s a reach.
“Good guy with gun” knows the laws and that it’s illegal to carry on a college campus. Thus, making your grandstanding comment inaccurate.
get a load of this guy
It’s a college campus bro are you serious
Good point. We should mandate everyone carry to protect the people. An armed society is a polite society.
Farthest thing from it. More guns than any other affluent country, more shootings. More deaths. Your comment may be the most hardcore, tone deaf thing I’ve ever read here, and that’s saying something.