UVA Murder Suspect Bought 2 Guns After Getting Previous Charge Reduced: Report

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — A University of Virginia student accused of killing three UVA football players on a chartered bus Sunday night bought two guns earlier this year after he failed a background check when trying to purchase a gun in 2021, according to reports.

Information about the guns owned by Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, who is charged with three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of malicious wounding, is coming out as UVA prepares to honor the three students at a memorial service on Saturday and as Virginia's attorney general announced plans for an independent review of events at UVA leading up to the shooting.

Jones bought a Ruger AR-556 rifle and a Glock 45 9 mm pistol with an additional magazine from Dance’s Sporting Goods in Colonial Heights, Virginia, store owner Marlon Dance said in a statement to NBC News. The rifle was bought on Feb. 19 and the pistol was bought on July 8, according to the store.

In July 2021, Jones tried to buy a Smith & Wesson M&P15-22, a .22-caliber rifle, but “failed the background check,” the gun store told NBC News. He also tried to buy a handgun when he was younger than 21 on Dec. 31, 2018, according to the statement.

Police officials in Charlottesville have not said what type of gun was used in the shooting that killed the three football players and injured two other people.

WWBT, an NBC affiliate in Richmond, reported that Jones failed the gun background check in 2021 due to charges he faced in a hit-and-run crash on Aug. 9, 2020, in Petersburg.

"The pending charge was reduced to a misdemeanor by the court in October 2021, thereby removing the prohibition against future purchases," Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller told NBC News.

The reduction of the charge to a misdemeanor allowed Jones to buy the two guns earlier this year.

Jones made his first appearance in Albemarle County General District Court on Wednesday, where prosecutors told the court that Jones appeared to be aiming at certain people on the chartered bus and was not randomly shooting. The bus was returning to Charlottesville after a day trip to Washington, D.C.

Jones is being held at the Charlottesville-Albemarle County Regional Jail without bond.

After the chartered bus pulled to a stop at the Culbreth Garage on UVA's campus and as the students were getting up to exit the bus, Jones pulled out a gun and began firing, the Virginia State Police said in a news release Thursday.

As Jones got off the bus, he fired additionall shots and then fled the scene on foot. Jones left the Charlottesville area in his black Dodge Durango. During their investigation Sunday night, police found a handgun "in relative proximity to the shooting scene," the state police said.

The next day, at about 11 a.m., Henrico County police arrested Jones without incident.

No guns were recovered inside the chartered bus. Using a search warrant, police entered Jones’ residence in Charlottesville and found a rifle and a handgun, state police said. All firearms have been turned over as evidence to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for processing.

At this point in their investigation, the state police said they are "not in a position to comment on Jones’ motives behind the shootings."

3 Slain UVA Players To Be Honored

At this weekend’s football games, UVA’s fellow teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference and teams across the state will honor the three slain football players.

The slain students were junior receiver Lavel Davis Jr., 20, of Dorchester, South Carolina; junior receiver Devin Chandler of Huntersville, North Carolina; and junior defensive end/linebacker D'Sean Perry, 22, of Miami. UVA football player Michael Hollins Jr. and Marlee Morgan, a sophomore at the university, also were injured in the shooting.

The schools’ decision to honor the slain UVA football players comes as their teammates and the university community await word on funeral arrangements for the three students and as online fundraisers collect money to help the players' families.

On Saturday, UVA will be holding a memorial service at 3:30 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena. The last regular home game of the season was originally scheduled for the same time Saturday, but has been canceled. The memorial will be open to the public as well as live-streamed.

All ACC home football games this weekend will hold a moment of silence and display a "UVA Strong" graphic on the field, and every team in the league will wear a helmet decal honoring the victims.

Other universities in Virginia, including James Madison University, the University of Richmond and Old Dominion University, also will wear helmet decals to honor the three players who were killed.

Several fundraisers for Davis, Chandler and Perry have been started and verified by GoFundMe. Heather Mitchell organized a fundraiser for Davis's funeral and memorial. Shelly Crais is holding a fundraiser for Chandler. Two fundraisers have been set up for Perry's family: one started by Bradley Smith and another by Matteo Uccelli.

RELATED:

• UVA Student Targeted Football Players On Chartered Bus: Prosecutors
• Slain UVA Football Players: Model Hoo, Kind Smile, Great Teammate

Players on the UVA football team will be allowed to attend funerals of their slain teammates, services that will take place in three states, JerryRatcliffe.com reported.

“The [NCAA] rules are permissive, so we’ll do whatever it takes that helps our players heal and support the families of our three players,” UVA athletic director Carla Williams said at a news conference Tuesday.

UVA head football head coach Tony Elliott said that while there will a lot of logistics involved, he wants to follow the lead of the players in terms of attending the three funerals.

"I cannot find the words to express the devastation and heartache that our team is feeling today after the tragic events last night that resulted in the deaths of Lavel, D'Sean and Devin, and the others who were injured," Elliott said in a statement Monday.

"These precious young men were called away too soon. We are all fortunate to have them be a part of our lives. They touched us, inspired us and worked incredibly hard as representatives of our program, university and community. Rest in peace, young men,” Elliott said.

No decision has been made on whether the Cavaliers will play their last game of the season at Virginia Tech on Nov. 26.

The UVA student accused of fatally shooting the three UVA football players made his first court appearance Wednesday morning in Charlottesville, where prosecutors said he targeted specific students on the bus.

UVA's Actions To Undergo External Review

UVA President Jim Ryan said Wednesday there will be an external review into the university’s interactions with Jones, who was reported to the school's threat assessment team this fall for alleged possession of a gun. The Office of Student Affairs responded to the report and made efforts to contact Jones as well as his roommate, who said he saw no indication that Jones had a gun.

"It's possible — and perhaps likely — that we will never find one single thing that will explain this," Ryan said in a video to the university community. "It may also be that we never truly understand why this happened. But we learn, we will share."

On Thursday, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said his office is launching an external review of events leading up to the shooting deaths in response to a request from UVA. A special counsel will be appointed to head an independent review of the university’s response to the shooting.

“A public report will be shared with students, families, the larger U.Va. community and government officials at the appropriate time,” Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said in a statement. “The attorney general will work with deliberate speed while ensuring that all necessary resources remain devoted to the criminal investigation being conducted by state and local authorities.”

Classes resumed for UVA students on Wednesday, although the university said undergraduate students will not have to complete any graded assignments or take exams before the Thanksgiving break.

Williams said the UVA athletic department has three psychologists available for grieving teammates. “In our first meeting with the student athletes, we had a lot of counselors on hand that were there and available to work with the student athletes," Williams said. "And not only our football student athletes — with all of our student athletes.”

At a news conference Tuesday, Elliott said Chandler was the life of the party and always kept people entertained. Davis, a 6-foot-7 wide receiver, was the big man on campus "because everybody knew who he was, but he always found a way to keep them entertained," Elliott said.

Perry "was the quiet guy that everybody wanted to know more about because he was ... a very, very interesting young man in terms of the depth," Elliott said.