A former student pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting of three…

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) —

Former student pleaded guilty Wednesday fatally shot three University of Virginia football players and the wounding of two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. A four-day sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin Feb. 4 in Albemarle County District Court.

Jones was scheduled to stand trial on charges including aggravated murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole in Virginia. He pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Authorities said Jones opened fire on a charter bus as he and other students returned to campus after watching a play and going out to dinner together in Washington, D.C.

Authorities have not disclosed a motive. At the time of the shooting, Jones was a former member of the university’s football team. A witness told police he was targeting specific victims.

Football players Lavel Davis Jr., D’Shawn Perry and Devin Chandler were killed, and a fourth team member, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, were wounded.

The shooting occurred near the garage and caused panic. 12 hour quarantine historical campus before suspect was captured. Many at the school of about 23,000 students huddled in lab closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others retreated further from the library’s windows and barricaded the doors of its stately academic buildings.

The university was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, now a cosmopolitan city located about 72 miles (115 kilometers) west of Richmond. It stood violent “Unite the Right” rally in 2017which attracted hundreds of white nationalists to protest the planned removal of a Confederate statue. A car crashed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.

Jones’ trial on charges related to the shooting was scheduled for January. UVA President Jim Ryan said in a statement Wednesday that Jones’ guilty plea represents “another step in a long and painful journey for the victims’ families and for our community.”

“We continue to mourn the loss of three beloved members of our community and the injuries suffered by others on the bus,” Ryan said.

A few days after the shooting, university officials asked for an external review to investigate UVA’s security policies and procedures, its response to the violence, and previous efforts to assess the potential threat posed by the student who was ultimately charged. School officials acknowledged that Jones had previously been on the radar of the university’s threat assessment team.

In June, an attorney representing some of the victims and their families announced that the university agreed to pay $9 million in compensation.

Kimberly Wald said at the time that the school would pay $2 million each to the families of the three dead students, the maximum amount allowed under Virginia law. The school will also pay $3 million to the two injured students.

Following the settlement, some families also called for an immediate independent investigation into the shooting, which was completed last year.

Wald said the university should have removed Jones from campus before the attack because he showed many red flags due to erratic and unstable behavior.

University officials said they delayed releasing the report last year because of concerns it could affect Jones’ trial.

School officials said in a statement Wednesday that officials remain committed to publicly releasing the report. They said they plan to do so once Jones is finally sentenced in February.

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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.