PHILADELPHIA — A University of Virginia student on the charter bus where three UVA football players were shot and killed Sunday night described what suspected shooter Chris Jones Jr.said before he allegedly opened fire.
“Chris got up and pushed and pushed Lavel," classmate Ryan Lynch told Philadelphia television station KYW. "After he pushed him, he was like 'You guys are always messing with me.' He said something like that but it was really bizarre because they didn't talk to him the whole trip."
Police said Jones then shot and killed Lavel Davis Jr., D'Sean Perry, and Devin Chandler. Two other students were shot and survived. Mike Hollins, a running back on the football team, was in stable condition Monday, his mother, Brenda Hollins, told The Associated Press.
In an interview with CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil on Monday, Jones's father shared a similar story.
"He was real paranoid when I talked to him about some things. He wouldn’t tell me everything," Chris Sr. said about a conversation he had with his son last month. "He said some people were picking on him or whatever, he didn’t know how to handle it. I just told him to just go to school, don’t pay them no mind, do what you got to do, you only got one more year.”
Back on the bus, Lynch said she watched Jones Jr. kill her classmates.
“We thought he was going to shoot everyone in the bus at that point," Lynch said. "I thought we all were going to die."
Lynch, 19, was with Jones, the shooting victims, and about 20 other students on a school field trip to Washington DC where the group saw a play.
"We had been in the same class the whole year, but this was just truly the bonding experience," Lynch said.
The shooting occurred when the charter bus returned to the Charlottesville campus.
"They just kept coming more and more gunshots just wouldn’t stop," Lynch said."The shooter just sort of skipped off the bus when I saw him pass.”
Lynch said she was friends with the victims.
"All the men had such a beautiful spirit to them. They always had a smile on their face. They never showed any level of exhaustion. So personable and kind," she said.
Chris Jones Jr. is expected to make an initial court appearance on Wednesday. The arrest warrants for Jones charged him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, UVA Police Chief Tim Longo said.
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