Prosecutor: Witness told police UVA suspect targeted victims

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A witness who saw a University of Virginia student open fire on a bus returning from a field trip described to police how the gunman targeted specific victims — many of them football players — shooting one of them as he slept, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.

The details emerged during the suspect's first court appearance, the same day the university announced it was canceling its Saturday football game in the wake of the deadly shooting.

A witness who was shown a photo of the shooting suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., identified him as the gunman, the prosecutor said. The violence Sunday night left three football players dead and one player and another student wounded.

Jones, a former football player, appeared by video link from a local jail for the court hearing Wednesday. He did not enter a plea to the numerous charges he faces and said he plans to hire an attorney. A judge ordered him held without bond and appointed a public defender to represent him until he secures private counsel.

University officials and police have said Jones, who turns 23 Thursday, joined a group of about two dozen others on a field trip Sunday from the Charlottesville campus to see a play in the nation’s capital, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) away. When their bus arrived back on campus, authorities have said Jones opened fire, killing Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler.

Jones — who police have said was able to flee the shooting scene, setting off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown — faces three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and additional gun-related charges.

The violence at the state’s flagship public university has set off days of mourning among students and faculty, the broader Charlottesville...