University of Virginia to pay $9M settlement in wake of shooting that killed three football players and injured two others

The University of Virginia will pay $9million in a settlement related to a 2022 campus shooting that killed three football players and wounded two students, a lawyer representing some of the victims and their families said Friday.

The school in Charlottesville will pay $2m each to the families of the three students who died, the maximum allowable under Virginia law, said Kimberly Wald, an attorney with the Miami-based Haggard Law firm.

Wald represents the estate of D'Sean Perry. The other two students who died were Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr.

The university will pay $3m total to the two students who were wounded: Mike Hollins, a fourth member of the football team, and Marlee Morgan, who Wald also represents.

The settlement was negotiated outside of court and did not follow the filing of a lawsuit, Wald said. 

A special grand jury issued the new aggravated murder indictments against Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former football team player, who is accused of killing ex-teammates

Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D'Sean Perry (L-R) were killed in a school shooting in 2022

However, every settlement in Virginia must be approved by a judge. The settlement with UVA was accepted by a judge in Albemarle County Circuit Court on Friday afternoon.

The agreements also were approved by Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares, the university said in a statement.

UVA Rector Robert Hardie and President Jim Ryan said in the statement that the three students' lives 'were tragically cut short' and the young men 'have been ever present in our minds.'

'We will forever remember the impact that Devin, Lavel, and D'Sean had on our community, and we are grateful for the moments they spent in our presence uplifting UVA through their time in the classroom and on the football field,' the statement said.

Police said Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former member of the school's football team, carried out the shooting. It occurred when he and others had returned by charter bus to campus from a field trip to see a play in Washington, authorities said.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan speaks during a memorial service for three slain University of Virginia football players Davis Jr., Perry and Chandler

A settlement has now been agreed for the families of the victims and the two survivors 

Shooting survivor and running back Mike Hollins led the Cavaliers out of the tunnel in Week 1

The violence that erupted near a parking garage set off panic and a 12-hour lockdown of the campus until the suspect was captured.

Within days of the shooting, university leaders asked for an outside review to investigate UVA's safety policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential threat of the student who was eventually charged. 

School officials acknowledged he previously had been on the radar of the university's threat-assessment team.

Murder charges against Jones were upgraded in 2023 from second-degree murder to aggravated murder. His trial is scheduled for January.