UVA Fatal Shootings Lead to Uncertainty Over Remainder of Football Season

Plans for the rest of the University of Virginia (UVA) football season are in limbo as the campus continues to mourn the loss of three football players. They were shot dead on Sunday by a former player. Two other students, at least one of whom was also on the team, remain hospitalized with injuries.

Students at the Charlottesville campus remain stunned Tuesday by the tragedy. On Monday night, thousands of students attended a candlelight vigil for the slain students.

Classes on the campus were canceled Monday and Tuesday. UVA also canceled a Monday night basketball game against Northern Iowa. But the university has yet to announce what it plans to do with future football games.

Throughout the historic campus, the names and numbers of players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry are found on banners to pay tribute to them.

When reached for comment, Richard M. Southall, director of the College Sport Research Institute at the University of South Carolina, told Casino.org that UVA has several optimal options.

They could cancel the remainder of their schedule. They could cancel all games until after all the players’ funerals have been held. They could ask the players’ families what they would like and abide by the families’ wishes, Southall told Casino.org.

Virginia is still scheduled to play Coastal Carolina this Saturday in Charlottesville. That is the final home game of the season. A Nov. 26 game is scheduled at Virginia Tech. The status of these games remains unknown.

Southall does not expect the shootings to impact future players recruiting.

Devin, Lavel and D’Sean were our classmates, teammates, friends and family. They were study partners and role models. They made us laugh and inspired us. They had dreams. They succeeded both on and off the field. They are forever Cavaliers.

UVA (@UVA)

The accused shooter, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, was apprehended by police on Monday morning, some 80 miles east of Charlottesville.

He faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. Jones is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

The five victims had been on a field trip to see a play in Washington, DC. When the chartered bus returned to campus, they were wounded in a shooting spree.

Another student on the bus, Ryan Lynch, told Philadelphia television station KYW, “Chris got up and pushed and pushed Lavel. After he pushed him, he was like, You guys are always messing with me.'

We thought he was going to shoot everyone in the bus at that point, Lynch added. I thought we all were going to die.

The suspect s father said his son had been acting paranoid about a month ago when he reported to his dad he was being bullied.

He had some problems the last time I talked to him, Chris Jones Sr., told WWBT, a Richmond, Virginia, TV station. He said some people were picking on him or whatever, he didn’t know how to handle it.

I just told him, Go to school, don’t pay them no mind,' Jones Sr. said. “He was really paranoid when I talked to him about something, but he wouldn’t tell me everything. He was a very sensitive young man.”