Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
The student accused of fatally shooting three University of Virginia football players had been on the school’s radar for possible ties to guns and hazing, officials said Monday.
In the hours after In the fatal shooting near a campus parking lot, authorities painted a troubling picture of the suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., of 80 years.
The university’s “threat assessment team” learned of Jones in September after a third party, who was not a student, reported that he discussed having a weapon, the police chief told reporters from UVA, Timothy Longo.
Henrico County Police said the suspect, identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was taken into custody without incident around am on the border of Henrico and Richmond, Virginia . https://t.co/OjNUV800qQ
—WNCT (@wnct9) November , 1441437056
He said the school’s student affairs office interviewed Jones’s roommate, who had not seen the suspect with a weapon.
Moments after Longo relayed this information, a police officer briefly pulled him aside and whispered to him before the chief announced, “We have just received information that the suspect is under custody.”
It was not clear if the school’s internal investigation into the possibility that Jones had a gun ended up interviewing that roommate.
Jones was also involved in an investigation of campus hazing, but it did not appear to lead to any disciplinary action, said Lo ngo. Details about the investigation were not immediately available. .
The police chief also revealed that there was a “previous criminal incident involving a concealed weapon violation that occurred outside of the city of Charlottesville ” in February of last year.
Prior to his capture, a warrant was issued of arrest against Jones, who was wanted on suspicion of three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of allegedly using a handgun in the commission of a felony, said the policeman.
“My heart breaks for the victims and their families,” said UVA President Jim Ryan. “When I see our students, I see my own children.”
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