University of Virginia (UVA) police chief Timothy Longo said the school’s threat assessment team was alerted about shooting suspect Christopher Darnell Jones in September.
Jones allegedly shot five individuals at the UVA campus’ Gilbreth Garage on Sunday, killing three and leaving two wounded, Breitbart News reported.
A manhunt for Jones began immediately and UVA students were told to “shelter in place.” The search carried on throughout the night.
Chief Longo announced the capture of Jones during a Monday morning press conference, the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted.
Tim Longo, UVA’s Vice President for Safety and Security and Chief of Police, speaks to the media as University of Virginia President Jim Ryan listens, left, listens during a news conference at the school Monday, November 14, 2022, in Charlottesville, Virginia. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
During that same Monday morning press conference, Longo noted that Jones had been brought to the attention of UVA’s threat assessment team in September 2022.
“Our office of student affairs reported to multidisciplinary threat assessment that they received information that Mr. Jones had made a comment about possessing a gun to a person who was unaffiliated with the university,” Longo said.
Longo said that police do not believe the person who reported Jones’ gun ever actually saw the gun.
He noted that “the office of student affairs followed up with the reporting person and made efforts to contact Mr. Jones.”
Longo noted that Jones also came to the threat assessment team’s attention via alleged “involvement in a hazing investigation of some sort.”
He noted that Jones also had “a criminal incident involving a concealed weapon violation outside the city of Charlottesville in February of 2021.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.