UVA shooting: Local student witness shares chilling details
WYNNEWOOD, Pa. (CBS) -- A University of Virginia student is in custody, accused of fatally shooting three school football members and wounding two others. The Charlottesville Police Department identified the accused student gunman as Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr.
The shooting happened Sunday night as a bus full of students, including the players, returned to campus from a field trip to Washington, D.C.
The victims have been identified as D'Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr.
A sophomore pre-med student from the Main Line was on that bus Sunday night. One of the victims was a close friend of hers.
"We thought he was going to shoot everyone on the bus at that point," Ryan Lynch said.
Those are the chilling words from the 19-year-old as she shared with Eyewitness News exclusively the devastating late-night phone call that she made to her mother Sunday night detailing how a perfect day quickly turned into a nightmare.
"We had been in the same class the whole year," Lynch said, "but this was a bonding experience."
Lynch says Sunday evening, about 25 of her classmates and a professor were returning from a field trip in Washington, D.C. when a student who police identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. pulled out a gun as they were arriving back on campus.
"Chris got up and pushed Lavel," Lynch said. "And then after he pushed him, he was like, 'You guys are always messing with me.' Said something weird like that, but it was very bizarre because they didn't talk to him the whole trip."
Then Lynch describes the fear and fury.
"They just kept coming, more and more gunshots," Lynch said. "The shooter just sort of walked or skipped off the bus when I saw him pass."
Police say Jones allegedly killed three UVA football players. One of them was Lynch's friend.
"I was frozen," Lynch said. "I didn't know what to do. She was like, 'We have to try to help him, we have to help him.' She was amazing. She just started crying and said we have to help him. And so, we tried to, she checked his pulse, and I was just looking on his body and just had so many gunshots in him."
"All the men had such a beautiful spirit to them," Lynch added. "They always had a smile on their face, they never showed any level of exhaustion. So personable and so kind."
Eyewitness News spoke with Lynch's mother, Robin Lynch, in Wynnewood hours after she received the frightening call no parent ever wants to hear.
"I think it's a sad state of affairs that our children have to live to some degree in fear of the potential of something like this," Robin Lynch said.
Two other students are in critical condition.
Police arrested Jones early Monday afternoon.
