Commanders to honor Virginia football players with helmet decals after shooting
The Washington Commanders will honor the three Virginia football players who were killed in a mass shooting earlier this week on Sunday.
The Commanders will wear three black and orange decals on their helmets — No. 1, No. 15 and No. 41 — for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium.
On Sunday the team will be wearing three helmet decals: 1, 15, and 41 to honor the three UVA football players who lost their lives last Sunday.
Our hearts are with @UVAFootball and the UVA community affected by the tragedy.#UVAStrong | #FootballIsFamily pic.twitter.com/vWgC5GWRt7— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 18, 2022
Christopher Jones Jr., a Virginia student and former football player, is facing second-degree murder charges after he allegedly killed three people and injured two others in a shooting late in Sunday night in Charlottesville.
Police said Jones opened fire on a bus after their group returned to campus after a trip to Washington, D.C.. He was arrested the next morning.
The three students killed — Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry — were all members of the Virginia football team. Davis, 20, was a wide receiver from Dorchester County, South Carolina. Chandler, 20, was a wide receiver who transferred in from Wisconsin. Perry, 22, was a linebacker from Miami.
“You prepare for this job, [but] there is no chapter on something like this,” first-year Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said earlier this week. “So I am just trying to figure out how to be strong for these young men … The first meeting was really, really … really tough.”
Virginia has since canceled its game on Saturday against Coastal Carolina. The Commanders’ facility sits about two hours north of Virginia’s campus in Charlottesville.
The Commanders, who have won four of their last five games, will take on the Texans in Houston on Sunday.
