Tributes for slain University of Virginia football players pour in: ‘Three young, great men’
The father of a University of Virginia shooting victim raced through the night to see him in the hospital — as tributes pour in for the three dead.
Michael Hollins Sr. told the Washington Post that his son, Michael Hollins Jr, was shot in the back during the horrifying attack by alleged gunman Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.
The elder Hollins was at work when he got a call just before midnight that his son had been hurt. He got in his car and immediately drove to Charlottesville.
Hollins said his son is in stable condition Monday — but still intubated. The bullet lodged into the 21-year-old football player’s stomach.
“The doctors said he’s going to recover,” Hollins told WaPo. “They said because of his age and physical condition, he’s doing exceptionally well.”
The three victims — Devin Chandler of Virginia Beach, Lavel “Tyler” Davis of South Carolina and D’Sean Perry of Miami — were also football players, and Jones was a former teammate.
“They were all good kids,” head football coach Tony Elliott said Monday of the victims, adding he was still processing the horrific loss and would speak more “when the time is right.”
Their teammate Aaron Faumui said Monday through tears: “I don’t even know what to say right now. I just want to say they were three young great men.”
Other players flooded social media with tributes.
“Words can’t describe how I’m feeling rn. You all did not deserve this. I’m sorry my brothers until we meet again I love you all,” UVA running back Xavier Brown wrote.
Earlier Monday morning he tweeted: “Please just pray.”
UVA associate professor Jack Hamilton tweeted that Chandler and Davis were both his students, saying “I am so indescribably sad right now.”
Chandler frequented the professor’s office hours, and was “an unbelievably nice person, always a huge smile, really gregarious and funny.” He said he was “one of those people who’s just impossible not to like.”
Hamilton said Davis was a beloved by his peers.
“one thing that struck me about [him] was how much his classmates liked him and vice versa,” the professor wrote.
Jones was charged with three counts of second degree murder for the rampage. Two other people, including Hollins, were injured.
Police arrested him after a 12-hour manhunt that ended when an officer in Henrico, VA spotted his car. He was “safely taken into custody, without incident.”
The White House said in a statement that “The President and First Lady are mourning with the University of Virginia community after yet another deadly shooting in America has taken the lives of three young people.”
In a statement on behalf of Perry’s parents, attorney Michael Haggard thanked the family’s community for their support during “this impossibly tragic time” and said the family isn’t currently speaking on the subject.
Family members of Jones could not be reached by The Post Monday.
With Post wires.
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