Police were searching the University of Virginia campus and the surrounding area today for an “armed and dangerous” suspect wanted in connection with a shooting that killed three people and injured two others.
University police identified student Christopher Darnell Jones as the suspect in the shooting that occurred around 10:30 p.m. local time on Sunday at the 25,000-student school in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Today, law enforcement teams from multiple agencies searched the sprawling campus for the suspect, according to a series of tweets from University of Virginia police, who advised students and staff to shelter in place until further notice.
School President Jim Ryan expressed his “heartbreak” at the incident in a message shared on social media, noting that classes were canceled for the day.
“This is a message that no leader wants to send, and I am heartbroken that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” he wrote.
Authorities stated Jones was dressed in a “burgundy jacket, blue pants, and red shoes” and may have been driving a black SUV.
Police have not released any information regarding the incident and have not named the victims.
Jones, who Ryan claims is a student, was listed as a member of the school’s football team in 2018.
The massacre is the latest in a string of shootings on college and high school campuses in the United States in recent years. The tragedy has fuelled controversy in the United States, where the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom to carry weapons.
In 2007, a shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville, killed 33 people, including the gunman, and injured 23 more in one of the bloodiest mass shootings at a university in US history. — According to Reuters
