Virginia students were prepared for shooting, not aftermath

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — College students huddled inside laboratory closets and darkened dorm rooms throughout the College of Virginia whereas others moved distant from library home windows and barricaded the doorways of its stately educational buildings after an ominous warning flashed on their screens: “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.”

Responding to the quick risk of an on-campus taking pictures was a second that they had ready for since their first years of elementary college. However coping with the emotional trauma of an assault that killed three members of the college’s soccer staff late Sunday left college students shaken and greedy to know.

“This may in all probability have an effect on our campus for a really, very very long time,” mentioned Shannon Lake, a third-year pupil from Crozet, Virginia.

For 12 hours, she hid with pals and different college students, a lot of that point in a storage closet, whereas authorities searched into Monday morning for the suspect earlier than he was taken into custody.

When Lake and the others heard somebody may be proper exterior the enterprise college constructing, all of them determined to enter the closet, flip off the lights and barricade the door.

“That was in all probability essentially the most terrifying second as a result of it turned extra actual to us, and reminded us of these follow college lockdowns as kids. And it was simply form of a surreal second the place, you already know, I don’t suppose any of us have been actually processing what was occurring,” she mentioned.

Police charged 22-year-old pupil Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. with three counts of second-degree homicide, saying the three victims have been killed simply after 10:15 p.m. as a constitution bus full of scholars returned from seeing a play in Washington. Two different college students have been wounded.

College President Jim Ryan mentioned authorities didn’t have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances surrounding the taking pictures.

Police carried out a building-by-building search of the campus whereas college students sheltered in place earlier than the lockdown order was lifted late Monday morning.

Charlotte Goeb, a pupil who lives in an residence a few half-mile (800 meters) away from the place the taking pictures scene, instantly checked her doorways and shut off the lights after getting an alert from the college.

“I’m having a tough time coming to phrases that this was taking place,” she mentioned. “Though you spend all your upbringing realizing this could occur.”

Ellie Wilkie, a fourth-year pupil, was about to depart her room on the college’s prestigious, historic Garden on the middle of campus when her group texts with pals started exploding with phrase of the taking pictures. However she didn’t barricade herself in immediately.

“I feel our technology has been so habituated to those being drills and this being commonplace that I didn’t even suppose it was all that severe till I received an e mail that mentioned, ‘Run. Conceal. Struggle,’ all caps,” she mentioned.

Wilkie moved a big trunk she makes use of for storage in entrance of the door and put her mattress on prime of that. She turned off the lights, unplugged something that may make noise, put her telephone on do-not-disturb mode, received underneath the covers of her prime bunk and texted her mother, who referred to as again, terrified.

She picked up however informed her mother: “I’ve to get off the telephone now. I can’t be making noise in right here.”

College Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. mentioned the suspect had as soon as been on the soccer staff, however he had not been a part of the staff for not less than a yr. The UVA soccer web site listed Jones as a staff member through the 2018 season and mentioned he didn’t play in any video games.

It was not instantly clear whether or not Jones had an lawyer or when he would make his first court docket look.

Hours after Jones was arrested, first-year head soccer coach Tony Elliott sat alone exterior the athletic constructing utilized by the staff, at instances along with his head in his fingers. He mentioned the victims “have been all good youngsters.”

Elizabeth Paul was working at a desktop laptop within the Clemons library when she received a name from her mother concerning the taking pictures. She thought it was in all probability one thing minor till the pc she was utilizing lit up with a warning about an energetic shooter.

She spent about 12 hours huddled with a number of others beneath home windows within the library, hoping that if gunfire did erupt, they’d be out of sight. She spent many of the evening on the telephone together with her mother.

“Not even speaking to her the entire time essentially, however she needed the road to be on in order that if I wanted one thing she was there,” Paul mentioned.

Em Gunter, a second-year anthropology pupil, heard three gunshots after which three extra whereas she was learning genetics in her dorm room.

She informed everybody on her ground to go of their rooms, shut their blinds and switch off the lights. College students know from energetic shooter drills tips on how to reply, she mentioned.

“However how can we take care of it afterwards?” she requested. “What’s it going to be like in per week, in a month?”

___

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report have been Related Press writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va.; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va.; Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md.; Hank Kurz in Charlottesville, Va.; Holly Ramer in Harmony, New Hampshire; and information researcher Rhonda Shafner; in addition to videojournalist Nathan Ellegren and photographer Steve Helber in Charlottesville.