The University has received the preliminary report on the external review of the Nov. 13 shooting from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, per an update sent Friday. University leadership is currently reviewing the report and its recommendations, and the report is expected to be released to the public in early November.
While the report is under review, the University leadership will discuss the report’s recommendations with the Board of Visitors and those who were most affected by the tragedy, including the families of the students who were killed.
“University leaders remain committed to learning as much as possible about the tragedy and the circumstances that led to it, and to applying those lessons to keep the community safe,” the University said in an official statement posted.
Football players and University students Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were fatally injured in the November shooting that left students on Grounds on lockdown for nearly twelve hours. Two other students sustained injuries but survived.
Former University student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. has been charged with ten counts in relation to the shooting, including three counts of second-degree murder and five counts of the use of a firearm in a first felony offense.
University President Jim Ryan and former Rector of the Board of Visitors Whitt Clement requested that Miyares conduct an external review of November’s shooting to address the University’s response to the shooting and its assessment of Jones before the tragic event. Miyares selected law firms Quinn Emanuel and Vinson and Elkins to conduct the review.
Prior to the shooting, Jones had been reported to the University’s threat assessment team — a body responsible for enforcing University policy and procedures for the prevention of violence — for making a comment to a third party, unaffiliated with the University, about possessing a firearm.
When Jones’s on-Grounds dorm room was searched by police after the shooting, they found a semi-automatic rifle, pistol, ammunition and a device to make bullets fire faster, according to a search warrant inventory obtained by the Daily Progress. At the time, Jones was living in Bice House, an upperclassman student housing building.
The threat assessment investigation also revealed that Jones had been involved in a prior criminal incident outside of Charlottesville in February 2021 involving a concealed weapon. Students are required to report such convictions while they are students, but Jones failed to do so.
Jone’s case is currently awaiting trial.
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