CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Officials with the University of Virginia’s athletic department announced Wednesday the cancellation of an upcoming football game against Coastal Carolina University after a shooting Sunday claimed the lives of three team players.
The game would have been the university’s last home football game of the 2022 season. Officials said they were still discussing whether to play Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Nov. 26, the final scheduled game of the season.
Authorities said they will later issue information on ticket refunds for Saturday’s game.
Earlier this week, school officials said three UVA football players were killed and two other students were injured in a shooting on a bus that had returned to UVA Grounds following a class field trip to see a play in Washington. University President Jim Ryan identified the slain players as Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry.
Tony Elliott, head football coach for UVA, remembered Davis, Chandler and Perry as “incredible young men with huge aspirations and extremely bright futures.”
“Our hearts ache for their families, their classmates and their friends,” he said in a statement shared on social media. “These precious young men were called away too soon.”
Hours after the shooting, police in Henrico County took 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. into custody in connection with the shooting. He faces three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and other gun-related charges, The Associated Press reported. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.
On Monday, Ryan said officials “do not yet have a full understanding of the motive and circumstances surrounding these events.”
Authorities continue to investigate.
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