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Memorial flowers and stuffed animals line the walkway at Scott Stadium after three football players were killed in a shooting on the grounds of the University of Virginia on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, in Charlottesville. Virginia.
KeynoteUSA—
The University of Virginia has reached a $9 million settlement with the families of three college football players who died in a mass shooting in 2022 after a school field trip, school officials and attorneys for the families and victims announced Friday.
Lawyers told KeynoteUSA in statements on behalf of the victims’ families that the settlement does not bring them any closure and strongly urged that the results of the attorney general’s independent review of the shooting be released.
University spokesman Brian Coy said an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge approved settlement agreements between the university and the estates of football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.
The three men were killed on November 13, 2022, when a fellow student opened fire on a bus returning to the Charlottesville campus after a field trip to Washington, D.C., where the class had seen a play.
Two other people, Marlee Morgan and Michael Hollins, were injured by gunfire. Suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former football player, faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of use of a gun in the commission of a felony, UVA Police Chief Tim Longo said.
He also faces two counts of malicious wounding, each accompanied by a firearm charge, Albemarle County Prosecutor James Hingeley said. The motive behind the murder of three UVA Cavaliers remains a mystery, the university president said.
An attorney for the Perry family, Elliott Buckner, told KeynoteUSA that the settlement will be paid by the State of Virginia “pursuant to its Division of Risk Management Plan.” The families of Chandler, Davis and Perry will each receive $2 million and $3 million will go to Morgan and Hollins, Buckner said.
In an email to KeynoteUSA, Coy said both sides reached an agreement “in principle on the terms of the settlement” and said it was approved by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares prior to court approval.
University President Jim Ryan and Chancellor Robert Hardie said in a statement: “As of November 13, 2022, the families of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, whose lives were tragically truncated, they have always been present in our minds.”
“We will always remember the impact Devin, Lavel and D’Sean had on our community, and we are grateful for the times they spent in our presence elevating UVA through their time in the classroom and on the football field,” they said. .
KeynoteUSA has reached out to the attorney general and governor for comment.
Kimberly Wald, an attorney for the Perry, Hollins and Morgan families, told KeynoteUSA that the court finalized the $9 million “global settlement in this case” with the families of the three students who died and the two who were injured.
Wald said the results of the independent investigation into the shooting, launched by Miyares, have not been published.
University of Virginia
From left to right: Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry and Lavel Davis Jr.
Families demand release from outside investigation
Miyares announced days after the tragedy that, at the request of Ryan and then-Chancellor Whitt Clement, he would begin an independent review of the university’s response to the shooting, as well as its efforts in the preceding period.
The attorney for the victims’ families said they are “demanding the release of the information to understand what happened and why it happened and then initiate reforms on college campuses across the United States to save lives.”
Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Miyares, previously said the attorney general’s office will hire a special counsel to help complete the work.
“A public report will be shared with students, families, the broader UVA community and government officials at the appropriate time,” LaCivita said. “The Attorney General will work with deliberate speed while ensuring that all necessary resources remain dedicated to the criminal investigation being conducted by state and local authorities.”
Perry’s attorney Buckner echoed Wald regarding the independent review, telling KeynoteUSA that the court-approved settlements “don’t bring any closure to the families.”
“Families still do not have all the data about what happened to their children. It is time for UVA and the Commonwealth to release the Report. The families deserve to know what happened,” Buckner said.
The suspect was denied bail during a hearing a few days after the shooting that revealed he had been charged and convicted of reckless driving and hit-and-run in 2021 and had a concealed weapons charge the same year. He received suspended sentences for all the offences.
Jones purchased two weapons, a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol, in separate purchases in 2022, according to the owner of Dance’s Sporting Goods in Colonial Heights, KeynoteUSA previously reported.
But Jones also had to twice unsuccessfully purchase a firearm there, Marlon Dance told KeynoteUSA in an email. In 2018, he was under 21, the legal age to purchase a gun, and was denied the purchase. Three years later he tried to buy a rifle, but failed the background check, according to Dance.
In an email to KeynoteUSA, Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller said an investigation into the attempted purchase on July 8, 2021, revealed that the state police firearms transaction center denied the Jones’ request based on an ongoing legal matter.
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