NORFOLK, Va. — The University of Virginia has scheduled a public memorial for three football players killed during an on-campus shooting as support continues to pour in from far and wide.
UVA president Jim Ryan announced the memorial in a video message to the university community Wednesday night, saying the tribute at John Paul Jones Arena will begin at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and be livestreamed online.
“I hope you are taking care of yourselves, taking it easy on yourselves and leaning on each other,” Ryan said. “You have been through an extraordinarily difficult experience, including the loss of three students and the injuries to two others, but also a 12-hour ordeal of sheltering in place — and the fear and uncertainty that attended each one of those hours, whether you are a student, faculty, staff member or parent.”
Authorities have said football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were killed by a fellow student after returning to campus from a class trip Sunday night.
Police arrested Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former walk-on for the Cavaliers’ football team, and charged him in the shooting, which also injured two other students. Jones, who turns 23 on Thursday, faces three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and additional gun-related charges.
UVA’s football game Saturday at home against Coastal Carolina — the Cavaliers’ final home game of the season — was canceled on Tuesday. A decision has not been made on whether to play the scheduled season finale on Nov. 26 against rival Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Meanwhile, across the state and the Atlantic Coast Conference, teams will pay tribute to UVA and the shooting victims. The ACC announced its teams would wear UVA logos on their helmets during games Saturday, and several teams across the state — including Old Dominion, James Madison and Liberty — will wear a helmet decal with an orange memorial ribbon over a blue outline of the state.
“I think beyond just our communities, but communities in our state have been impacted by the loss of three beautiful, young human beings that had an unbelievable future ahead of them,” UVA football coach Tony Elliott said during a press conference Tuesday with athletic director Carla Williams. “But the message to the team is we’re going to celebrate those lives going forward and the impact that they’ve made thus far and the legacy that they’re going to be a part of helping us establish going forward.”
Added Williams: “We compete hard, and this industry is very, very competitive, but our fans have been remarkable and shown tremendous support to Coach Elliott, to me, to our department, to our university, but especially, especially to our student-athletes, and that has been a source of comfort for them to see how much support there is out there.”
Separate GoFundMe fundraisers for the families of Chandler, Davis and Perry have raised more than $100,000 each.
