CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia – A shooting on the campus of the University of Virginia (UVA) late on Sunday left three people dead and two wounded, university police said in a tweet, adding that the suspect was still at large and armed and dangerous.
The university police identified a student, Christopher Darnell Jones, as the suspect.
UVAs athletics website listed Jones as a one-time member of its football team.
Jones was described as wearing a burgundy jacket, blue jeans and red shoes, and may have been driving a black SUV, according to the authorities.
It was not immediately clear if the victims were students.
University police warned that Jones was armed and dangerous. They said several law enforcement agencies were helping with the search for Jones, and that the Virginia state police had deployed helicopters as part of the effort.
An e-mail sent to the student body by the universitys vice-president recommended that all students seek safety and follow shelter-in-place commands as the situation remained active.
This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community, and we have cancelled classes for today, UVA president Jim Ryan said in a statement.
Ms Eva Surovell, a senior at the university and the editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily, the campus newspaper, told NBC News in Washington that students were taking the news seriously.
Everyone is awake, everyone is sheltering in place, calling family, checking in, making sure theyre OK, she said. Its certainly somber.
The shooting is the latest in a wave of gun violence on US college and high school campuses in recent years. The bloodshed has fuelled the debate over tighter restrictions on access to guns in the United States, where the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. Embed Twitter Tweet URL
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