UVA to pay $9 million after shooting that killed 3 football players – NBC4 Washington

The University of Virginia will pay $9 million in a settlement related to a 2022 campus shooting that killed three football players and injured two students, an attorney representing some of the victims and their families said Friday .

The Charlottesville school will pay $2 million each to the families of the three deceased students, the maximum allowed under Virginia law, said Kimberly Wald, an attorney with the Miami-based Haggard Law Firm.

Wald represents the estate of D'Sean Perry. The other two students who died were Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr.

The university will pay a total of $3 million to the two injured students: Mike Hollins, a fourth-year member of the football team, and Marlee Morgan, whom Wald also represents.

The settlement was negotiated outside of court and did not follow the filing of a lawsuit, Wald said. However, any settlement in Virginia must be approved by a judge. The settlement with UVA was accepted by an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge Friday afternoon.

The agreements were also approved by Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares, the university said in a statement.

UVA Provost Robert Hardie and President Jim Ryan said in the statement that the three students' lives “were tragically cut short” and that the young men “have always been in our minds.”

“We will always remember the impact that Devin, Lavel and D’Sean had on our community, and we are grateful for the times they spent in our presence elevating UVA through their time in the classroom and on the football field”, we can read in the press release. said.

Police said Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former member of the school's football team, was responsible for the shooting. It happened when he and others were returning by charter bus to campus after an excursion to see a play in Washington, authorities said.

The violence that broke out near a parking lot sparked panic and a campus lockdown for 12 hours until the suspect was captured.

Days after the shooting, university leaders requested outside expertise to investigate UVA's security policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its previous efforts to assess the potential threat posed by the student who was ultimately charged. School officials acknowledged that he had previously been on the radar of the university's threat assessment team.

The murder charges against Jones were upgraded in 2023 from second-degree murder to aggravated murder. His trial is scheduled for January.