Students jailed after three killed in University of Virginia shooting

Police have arrested a University of Virginia student who allegedly shot and killed three members of the school’s football team as they returned to campus from a field trip.

Violence also erupted late Sunday near a parking lot, injuring two students and shutting down much of the campus while police searched for the shooter throughout the night.

The suspect, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., has been arrested, officials learned at a morning news conference.

“Give me a moment to thank God and breathe a sigh of relief,” University Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr said after learning of Jones’ detention.

The shooting happened just after 10:15 p.m. local time on Sunday, when a chartered bus full of students was returning from a performance in Washington.

University President Jim Ryan said authorities did not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances of the shooting.

“The entire university community is in grief this morning,” Mr Ryan said visibly nervous.

“My heart breaks for the victims and their families and all those who knew and loved them.”

The killings come as the United States is reeling from a string of mass shootings over the past six months, including a school shooting in Uvaldi, Texas that killed 19 students and two Seven teachers were killed and more than 30 were injured in a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago; 10 people were killed and 3 were injured in a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

Mr Ryan identified the three students killed as Devon Chandler, LaVell Davis Jr. and Deshaun Perry.

He said one of the injured students was treated in a critical condition at the hospital, while the other was in a good condition.

The shooting sparked an intense manhunt, with authorities conducting a building-by-building search of the campus while students sheltered in place.

The lockdown was lifted late on Monday morning.

Jones was in security custody in the Richmond suburb, police said.

Authorities obtained a warrant for Jones and charged him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of committing a felony with a handgun, Mr. Longo said.

Mr Longo said Jones had played on the rugby team but had not been on the team for at least a year.

The UVA football website lists him as a member of the team for the 2018 season and says he didn’t play in any games.

Hours after Jones’ arrest, first-year head coach Tony Elliott sat alone outside the athletic building used by the team, sometimes with his head in his hands.

He said the victims were “good boys” and he would speak more about them “in due course”.

Mr. Longo said Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team this fall after a person unrelated to the school reported that Jones had apparently made remarks about gun ownership.

There were no reports of threats related to concerns about weapons, but officers investigated it, following up with Jones’ roommate.

Mr Longo also said Jones was involved in “some form of bullying investigation”.

He said he did not know all the facts and circumstances of the case, though he said the investigation was closed due to uncooperative witnesses.

Additionally, Mr. Longo said officials are aware of previous incidents outside Charlottesville involving weapons violations.

He said the incident was not reported to the university as it should have been.

Anthropology second-year student Em Gunter heard three gunshots, then three more, while studying genetics in his dorm, less than a five-minute walk from the scene of the shooting.

She knew right away there was an active shooter outside and told the others to go into their rooms, close the blinds and turn off the lights.

“Everyone in the hallway was freaking out. No one knew what to do,” she said.

For the next 12 hours, she spent the next 12 hours in her room with a friend, listening to police scanners and texting family and friends who were stuck elsewhere on campus.

A friend was in the library and ended up sleeping in a pile of books.

Another was in an off-campus apartment, huddled in a closet with her roommate.

Students know how to cope from active shooter training, she said.

“But what do we do after that?” she asked.

“What will it be like in a week, a month?”

Eva Surovell, editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily, a student newspaper, said she ran to the parking lot after students were alerted to an active gunman, only to see it blocked off by police.

When she reached a nearby intersection, she was told to shelter in place.

“My generation certainly grew up with pervasive gun violence, but when it’s your own community, that doesn’t make it any easier,” she said.

White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said in a statement that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are mourning with the university community.

“Too many families in America bear the terrible burden of gun violence,” the statement said.

Elsewhere, police in Moscow, Idaho, are investigating the deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found Sunday at their home near campus.

Officials discovered the death when they received reports that someone was unconscious, authorities said.