CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Devin Chandler was fatally shot in his sleep as he and other University of Virginia classmates were on a bus returning to campus after a field trip, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney James Hingeley also said that the shooter, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., appeared to be aiming at “certain people” and “not randomly shooting,” according to a witness.
Jones appeared in a video from jail for his first court appearance Wednesday, per reporting from NBC News.
Jones is the suspect who shot five and killed three late Sunday night, after Jones and a few classmates returned to campus from a field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C. One of the three killed was Chandler, a Hough High School (Cornelius, N.C.) graduate in 2020 and former Huntersville resident.
Chandler — like the other two killed Sunday night, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry — was a junior on the Virginia football team.
Jones has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder, five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and two counts of malicious wounding, per The Washington Post. No bond was set Wednesday, and Jones’ next court date is set for Dec. 8.
Chandler played receiver for the Cavaliers. On Monday, after news of the fatal shooting spread from Virginia to North Carolina and across the country, many shared stories of Chandler’s “infectious smile” and the joy with which he lived his life.
“He’ll be missed,” Hough High School football coach Matt Jenkins told The Charlotte Observer on Monday morning. “He was going to make this place better.”
