Three football players killed in University of Virginia shooting, suspect in custody
- Suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jnr, 22, arrested hours after shooting at the University of Virginia
- He faces murder charges after allegedly opening fire on a bus full of students returning from a field trip
A former US college football player was arrested on Monday and charged with murder after three members of the current University of Virginia team were shot dead at the school a few hours south of the US capital.
The latest outburst of campus gun violence came as four people were found dead in a separate incident near the University of Idaho.
Police chief Timothy Longo told a news conference that a 22-year-old UVA student, Christopher Darnell Jones Jnr, had been taken into custody on suspicion of carrying out the shooting Sunday night and faces murder charges.
Police in Henrico County said Jones was arrested “without incident” Monday morning in a suburb of Richmond, about 120km (75 miles) southeast of the UVA campus in Charlottesville.
The shooting took place on a bus while students were returning from a field trip, according to UVA president Jim Ryan, who said all three of those who died were members of the school’s football team.
Two other students were wounded, Ryan said, and one of them was in critical condition.