Ex-Virginia player pleads guilty to 2022 mass shooting that killed 3 football players on campus

A former Virginia student and football player pleaded guilty in the shooting death of three football players and wounding of two other students on campus in 2022, according to The Associated Press.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder Wednesday in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Jones, 25, is due in court next in February for sentencing.

Police said that Jones opened fire on a bus after he and others were on a class field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C., in November 2022. The bus had just arrived back on campus after the field trip when the shooting broke out.

Three players — Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry — were killed in the shooting. Running back Mike Hollins was shot, but he survived and returned to the field last fall in the Cavaliers’ season opener, when he led the team out of the tunnel. A fifth student, Marlee Morgan, was also injured.

Virginia canceled the rest of its season in the wake of the shooting. Police have not released a motive. The school has since paid out settlements to victims and their families. An independent probe into the shooting was completed last year, but university officials have delayed its release over concerns that it could have impacted the trial that was scheduled for January. Now that Jones has pleaded guilty, it’s unclear when that report will be published.

Virginia currently holds a 5-5 record this season, the third under coach Tony Elliott — who was near the end of his first campaign with the program when the shooting occurred. The Cavaliers will host No. 13 SMU this weekend before ending the year at Virginia Tech. If they can win one of those games, they will become bowl eligible for the first time since 2019.