Shooting Suspect’s Video Adds to Questions About University’s Investigation

Greater than a yr earlier than he was charged with taking pictures and killing three fellow College of Virginia college students, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. appeared in a music video holding a gun and rapping about homicide and his personal psychological troubles.

The video, posted on YouTube on Aug. 15, 2021, options Mr. Jones, one other rapper and others dancing and aiming weapons on the digicam, and it provides to the questions surrounding the college’s investigation of Mr. Jones within the months earlier than the taking pictures. He had left a path of warning indicators, together with a hid weapon violation and a felony cost that was pleaded right down to a misdemeanor.

Whereas the college began investigating Mr. Jones in September, after one other pupil had reported that he had talked about having a gun, officers didn’t interview him as a result of he had refused to cooperate, they mentioned. Nor did anybody from the college search his room, which might have revealed a cache of weapons and ammunition.

Mr. Jones, 23, describes within the video a number of ways in which he would kill individuals, together with taking pictures individuals at a celebration and killing one other individual “in his sleep.” Mr. Jones mentions having psychological issues and says he continuously carries a weapon, themes that echo these in songs posted on the music streaming service SoundCloud beneath his rap moniker way back to 2018.

It’s not clear whether or not the weapons had been actual or props, or whether or not Mr. Jones wrote the lyrics he rapped over two verses within the video. Neither is it clear whether or not the lyrics had been particular threats or blustery nods to the express lyrics and violent imagery generally present in common music. However the presence of the weapons within the video raises questions on whether or not the college knew, or ought to have identified, in regards to the on-line exercise of Mr. Jones because it investigated him.

One other rapper on the music, who mentioned on Fb that he had been in contact with Mr. Jones in custody, declined to remark instantly when contacted by The New York Occasions and didn’t reply to follow-up calls. The videographer who filmed the music video additionally didn’t reply to messages searching for remark.

Requested whether or not the College of Virginia was conscious of the music video, Brian Coy, a spokesman, mentioned the college “gained’t be commenting on these issues” whereas the Virginia State Police conducts a felony investigation into the taking pictures and the state legal professional common’s workplace conducts an exterior evaluate, which the college requested.

Mr. Jones had a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol, ammunition and a tool designed to extend a weapon’s fee of fireside in his dorm room on campus, in response to a police search warrant stock obtained by The Each day Progress, a neighborhood newspaper. A particular agent with the Virginia State Police executed the search warrant on Nov. 14, lower than 12 hours after the taking pictures, in response to The Each day Progress.

After white nationalists rioted in Charlottesville in 2017, the College of Virginia entered right into a contract with an organization, Social Sentinel, that tracks social media in an effort to detect threatening posts after which provides the data to the campus police, in response to The Each day Progress.

JP Guilbault, the chief government of Social Sentinel’s guardian firm, Navigate360, mentioned the corporate had not had a contract with the College of Virginia in a number of years. Mr. Guilbault mentioned the software program labored by in search of sure key phrases, together with places in public social media postings and on a faculty’s community, however provided that the menace was particular.

“If he mentioned, ‘I’m going to kill college students on the College of Virginia,’ that will have been picked up,” Mr. Guilbault mentioned. As for the college, Mr. Guilbaut mentioned, “I’d assume they nonetheless use, and have relevant processes to guage, social channels.”

On Sept. 1, the college police acquired a presentation from a consultant of Meta, titled, “Working With Meta to Improve Your Investigations.” A spokeswoman for Meta mentioned the presentation had targeted on the authorized parameters the corporate labored inside when processing regulation enforcement requests, resembling necessities for acquiring subpoenas.

Mr. Coy has mentioned that on Oct. 26, after Mr. Jones “repeatedly refused to cooperate” with the college’s investigation, a consultant for pupil affairs despatched Mr. Jones an electronic mail warning that his failure to report the hid weapon conviction can be referred to the College Judiciary Committee, the student-run physique that handles self-discipline on campus. However, for causes that stay unclear, that referral was by no means made.

Mr. Jones wouldn’t have been allowed to have firearms on campus, and ammunition is explicitly prohibited in pupil housing, in response to insurance policies listed on the college’s web site. However a number of attorneys mentioned that these insurance policies didn’t give authorities specific permission to go looking pupil rooms for prohibited objects, and {that a} search warrant would probably be wanted.

“A pupil’s dorm room is like anybody else’s house, and so they retain the identical privateness rights as a home-owner,” mentioned Steven D. Benjamin, a distinguished protection lawyer in Virginia. “No entry will be made absent emergency, consent or the execution of a search warrant.”

And he mentioned getting a warrant would have been tough on this case. “Should you took all of these objects collectively,” Mr. Benjamin mentioned, referring to the comment a couple of gun from one other pupil, the invention of Mr. Jones’s previous misdemeanor conviction and the video, “I don’t see any choose issuing a search warrant.”

Virginia’s legal professional common is bringing on a particular counsel to conduct a evaluate of the occasions that led to the taking pictures. Officers on the college have requested that the evaluate focus partly on “efforts the college undertook within the interval earlier than the tragedy to evaluate the potential menace Mr. Jones posed to our neighborhood.”

A lot of Mr. Jones’s buddies spoke about him on Fb within the days after the taking pictures, seemingly in protection of his character. Some pointed to a video interview that Mr. Jones gave whereas attending Petersburg Excessive College, the place he was acknowledged as a pupil who was excelling. Within the video, Mr. Jones mentioned, “I’m right here as a result of I like college. I like the setting of college.” He added: “Don’t give up. When issues get powerful, when issues get exhausting within the classroom, don’t ever surrender. Grind. Go exhausting.” In one other video, he sang a preferred gospel music in an auditorium after receiving some awards.

“He was simply anyone that you’d need round. Like, he was all the time simply strolling round dancing and singing. He was only a joyful individual in highschool,” mentioned Devel Browder, who went to highschool with Mr. Jones. She added, “As a result of from who we all know, Chris, it’s not like him to do that.”

Mr. Jones has been charged with three counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of malicious wounding and 5 counts of utilizing a handgun within the fee of a felony. He has not entered a plea. The lawyer representing Mr. Jones declined to remark.

D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, all members of the college’s soccer staff, had been killed within the taking pictures on a bus that had simply returned from a category area journey to see a play in Washington. A fourth soccer participant, Michael Hollins, was shot within the again and hospitalized; in response to his father, he’s anticipated to make a full restoration. One other pupil, Marlee Morgan, was additionally injured within the assault. Mr. Jones was additionally on the journey.

Final week, Virginia canceled its soccer staff’s final sport, ending its season.

Campbell Robertson and Stephanie Saul contributed reporting, and Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.