*NBC News reports that UVA linebacker D’Sean Perry spoke to his mother minutes before being shot on a bus returning to the campus. Around 10:06pm ET on Nov. 13 Perry talked with his mother, and when he hung up the call, social media posted alerts of an active shooter at the university, according to his parents.
“He said they were on the way back almost to campus, and his phone was going dead,” his mother said.
“Then we started getting tweets … from social media about that there was an active shooter at the school.” Eyewitnesses claim that shooter Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, targeted his victims, according to prosecutors, the New York Posts reports.
James Hingeley, representing the Commonwealth of Virginia, said Perry and Devin Chandler died on the bus after being shot as they slept. The third victim, Lavel Davis Jr., succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
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D’Sean Perry – via UVA
Students relayed that “Chris [pointed]the gun at Devin Chandler and saw him shoot while he slept and slumped to the floor,” Hingeley said. When Perry did not return his parents’ call, the wait to hear back from him was harrowing.
“Dreadful, to say the least,” Perry’s mother said. “I had called my sister and let her know what was going on. I just needed everyone to pray.” Unfortunately, the slain football player’s family received a call at 2:30 a.m. naming Perry among the fatally shot victims.
“I heard my wife on the phone. Once she got the call, she just broke down crying,” Perry’s father said. “All I could do is run around the house and say ‘no,’ and we just cried together.”
According to the New York Post, Mary Eliza Jones, the grandmother of the shooter, said Jones was having a difficult time at the university.
“I know he had a downfall,” she said of her grandson’s mental state. “I believe he had some problems there.”
Jones’ father, Christopher Darnell Jones Sr., told NBC 12 his son told him “some people were picking on him” and “he didn’t know how to handle it.”
“We’re lost, but we’re not empty,” Sean Perry, the father, said. “I know my son is right here as we speak.”
In January, D’Sean Perry would have graduated with a studio art major. According to NBC News, his parents said he was deciding to further his education by entering graduate school or pursuing a career in football.
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