Members of the University of Virginia football team are “still in shock” as they try to process the death of three teammates in an on-campus shooting over the weekend, coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday.
“It feels like it’s a nightmare to be honest with you, and I’m ready for somebody to pinch me and wake me up and say that this didn’t happen,” Elliott, sitting alongside athletic director Carla Williams, told a news conference. “It’s been a long … I don’t know how long it’s been since it happened. The minutes can’t go by fast enough.”
Receivers Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis and linebacker D’Sean Perry were killed in Sunday’s shooting, which occurred on a bus full of students returning from a field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C. Elliott said he didn’t have enough information to provide an update on Mike Hollins, another football player who is in the hospital after being injured in the shooting. Another student, whose name has not been released by the school, was also taken to the hospital with injuries.
Police have arrested Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who was previously a walk-on on the football team, in connection with the shooting. He has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder as well as three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Tuesday that Jones has also been charged with two counts of malicious wounding. He is scheduled to appear in court by video link Wednesday, according to the Times-Dispatch.
Williams said she had no details on what led to the incident and that she wouldn’t be able to speak to anything related to the ongoing criminal investigation. She had no update on whether Virginia would play its scheduled game against Coastal Carolina on Saturday.
“We’ll make (a decision) together. It will be a discussion with Coach and the team,” Williams said. “Obviously they’re going through a lot, and we want to make sure they’re involved as well. We’ll use our best judgment, but it will be soon. We’ll make a decision soon.”
Elliott said his focus “is not past today.”