Medical Examiner: Slain UVA students were shot in the head

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Three University of Virginia football players who were shot on a bus as they returned from a field trip each died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The cause of death for Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler was released in response to a request from The Associated Press on Thursday. LaKeshia Johnson, Central District Administrator of the medical examiner’s office, also said in an email that the manner of death was homicide.

The students were shot late Sunday night as they returned to campus after traveling to Washington, where they saw a play and had dinner together. Authorities have said that Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former member of the football team who was on the trip, began shooting students on the charter bus as it pulled to a stop at a campus parking garage.

Jones, 23, faces second-degree murder and other charges stemming from the shooting, which set off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown before Jones was apprehended in suburban Richmond. Jones is being held without bond.

A witness told police the gunman targeted specific victims, shooting one as he slept, a prosecutor said Wednesday at Jones’ first court appearance. Two other students were wounded. Neither Jones nor his attorney addressed the charges in court.

Officials said Thursday that an outside special counsel will assist the state attorney general in reviewing the shooting.

In a letter, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and University Rector Whitt Clement asked Attorney General Jason Miyares to appoint outside counsel to investigate UVA's response to the shooting as well as efforts prior to the violence to assess the potential threat of the suspect.

“After a tragedy of this nature,...