A suspect was in custody Monday after three football players were fatally shot on the University of Virginia campus Sunday night, university officials said during a news conference. For nearly 12 hours stretching into Monday morning, the university urged people in and around its campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, to shelter in place as the authorities searched for the suspect, whom they identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.

The university cancelled classes on Monday. The university’s president, Jim Ryan, identified the three students who were killed as Devin Chandler of Virginia Beach; Lavel “Tyler” Davis of Dorchester, South Carolina; and D’Sean Perry of Miami. Two other people were wounded in the shooting.

The football players had just returned from a class trip and were attacked as their bus pulled into a campus parking garage, Ryan said at Monday’s news conference. Around 6.30am (Eastern time) on Monday, the university urged people in and around campus to remain sheltered in place as the authorities searched for the suspect.

The university’s office of emergency management said it received reports of shots fired on Culbreth Road around 10.30pm on Sunday. The University of Virginia Police Department identified the gunman as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, who the university president said in an email to the campus was a student at the school. In the email to the campus sent early on Monday, the university president, Jim Ryan, said, “I am heartbroken to report that the shooting has resulted in three fatalities.”

(New York Times News Service)