A shooting at UVA and more Va. headlines

The State Capitol. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)

• Three University of Virginia football players were killed in a shooting Sunday night allegedly committed by a former member of the team. The suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was taken into custody Monday morning outside Richmond and charged with murder. Two other victims remain hospitalized.—Washington Post

• The Richmond Times-Dispatch published a profile of Jones when he graduated from Petersburg High School four years ago, painting a portrait of a young man who had seemed to be on the verge of overcoming a troubled upbringing marked by “a fractured family, school fighting and suspensions.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Parents, students and Charlottesville leaders were stunned by the shooting as the city turned into a “ghost town” before the suspect was caught. “There was no traffic and more police than pedestrians—pretty eerie feeling on a Monday morning in November.”—Daily Progress

• Former President Donald Trump called Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears a “phony” after she said she wouldn’t vote for him in 2024 and called for the GOP to move on with new leaders.—Newsweek

• Outdoorsmen from Southwest Virginia are trying to separate the reality and myth of mountainous hunts for “mind-sharpening” wild ginseng. TV shows that portray people finding several pounds at once, says Mike Reed, are fake or “nuttier than fruitcakes.”—Bristol Herald Courier

by Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

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