Across America, we have seen the growth of gun violence in schools. However, we have yet to see how and when this will end.
The following is a true story about gun violence on a college campus. For anonymity and privacy reasons, the name Albert will be given as an alias.
Live Perspective
At around 8:00 pm PST, my friend Albert, a senior at the University of Virginia, began spamming my phone with screenshots of school alerts, informing him of an active shooter near campus. He said “at first I thought nothing of it. Maybe just some random crazy person was doing crazy stuff.”
He told me he informed his family back in Los Angeles, CA, where his older sister then pointed it out to him via Twitter that it was not something crazy.
He grabbed his laptop and began looking on the internet for more information. There it was. Police officers were looking for their suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones, an ex-football player for UVA.
At this time, Albert said he grabbed his phone and texted his roommate to be safe. His roommate responded with “stuck in the chem building, they won’t let us leave.” It was not until the following morning, when the lockdown was lifted, that his roommate finally came home.
The situation became clearer the following morning as more information on the matter came to light. Christopher Darnell Jones was the prime suspect, still at large at this time; however, it was released that he had allegedly killed 3 individuals and injured 2 others. My friend felt distraught, in disbelief, and sad. As a huge football fan, he felt the pain when the names of the 3 deceased were released; Lavel Davis Jr, D’Sean Perry, and Devin Chandler, star athletes part of UVA’s football team.
So What Happened?
According to the research Albert did during this time, a bus carrying a few football players was returning from a school field trip in Washington, D.C. When the bus finally parked in Charlottesville, Jones opened fire on the bus, targeting the football players, and later fleeing the scene. For approximately the next 12 hours, students at the University of Virginia were on lockdown as the manhunt for the suspect took place.
The following morning, news broke out as to who was tragically killed and injured. The lockdown at the school was lifted but classes were canceled. Later that morning, news broke out once more as the suspect was finally found and taken into custody. That Monday night, at UVA’s South Lawn, Charlottesville students, and community members came together for a silent vigil, in memory of those lost.
On Wednesday, November 16th, the suspect made his first appearance in court. Christopher Darnell Jones faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun. He also faces two counts of malicious wounding and firearm charges in connection to the two other individuals who were hurt. He is set to return to court on December 8th.
Moving Forward
Students have now returned to class on Wednesday, November 16th. The school has canceled its football game that was scheduled for this upcoming weekend. Making national news, people across the country shared their condolences with the UVA community, as the community itself mourns.
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