Slain University Of Virginia Football Players Awarded Posthumous Degrees
The University of Virginia awarded posthumous degrees to the three football players killed in a November campus mass shooting, UVA Today reported Monday (Dec. 5).
Diplomas were given to the families of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry through UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences departments where the student athletes were studying and was approved by the Provost.
“It was a great honor to be a part of presenting these diplomas to the families of Devin, Lavel and D’Sean,” athletic director Carla Williams told UVA Today.
Davis, a third-year student from Ridgeville, S.C., majored in African American and African studies. Second-year student Chandler of Huntersville, N.C., majored in American studies. Perry, of Miami, was a fourth-year student with a double major in studio art and African American and African studies.
Former UVA football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is accused of gunning down fellow students Nov. 13 at about 10:30 p.m. on a charter bus with students when it returned to campus from a field trip to Washington D.C.,The Washington Post reported.
In addition to fatally shooting Chandler, Davis and Perry, he allegedly wounded students Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan in the mass shooting.
After a manhunt, the police arrest Jones, 22, the next day about 80 miles from the campus. Timothy Longo, UVA’s chief of police, said Jones would be charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, according to The New York Times.
Morgan and Hollins, a running back on the team, were released from the hospital following treatment. Hollins is expected to complete the requirements for his undergraduate degree this month.
