3 UVA football players killed in shooting are remembered as role models with ‘lasting impact’

Family and friends of three college football players, gunned down at the University of Virginia, called their slayings “heartbreaking and tragic.”

Cavaliers linebacker D’Sean Perry and wide receivers Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. were allegedly killed by one-time football player Christopher Darnell Jones on Sunday night, a little more than 30 hours after team’s game against the University of Pittsburgh.

Lavel Davis Jr.

Davis, 20, was set to graduate in December and was a beloved first child and a “role model” to his younger brother and sister, his father, Thaddeus Lavel Davis, told NBC News. 

The father said he was “heartbroken.”

“I lost my baby. This is my firstborn child,” he said, adding that his son who could “light up a room just with a smile” was focused on school, football and his family. 

Their family, from Charleston, South Carolina, was heading to the UVA campus Monday. 

The grieving father said he learned the news of his son’s death Monday morning after receiving a call from his wife while he was at work, but didn’t know exactly what transpired in the shooting.

He said he last talked to his son Saturday and he wished he could’ve told him one last time, “I love you, son.”

D’Sean Perry

An attorney for Perry’s parents, Happy and Sean Perry, issued a statement thanking the South Florida and the Charlottesville communities for “the outpouring of support during this impossibly tragic time.” 

“Right now, Happy and Sean will not speak publicly about the incident as their grief is only beginning, and out of respect for the University of Virginia community which has been terrorized by another mass shooting in the United States,” attorney Michael Haggard said. 

Devin Chandler

Chandler came to Virginia’s program after transferring from the University of Wisconsin.

“It is heartbreaking and tragic that Devin’s young life was cut short by violence,” Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh said in a statement.

Chandler still had plenty of friends in Madison and Sunday’s fatal shooting will be felt throughout the program, Wisconsin officials said.

“He had a lasting impact on his teammates, even after he left UW, which is a testament to the type of person he was,” interim Badgers coach Jim Leonhard said in a statement.

“His personality was infectious and he was a joy to be around. Our team is hurting for him and his family.”