Christopher Darnell Jones School Profile Resurfaces—'Why Wasn't He Smiling?'

The student suspected of shooting five people at the University of Virginia (UVA) was described in a 2018 newspaper profile as a smart and ambitious teenager who navigated a difficult path to enroll at the university.

Authorities said three people had been killed in the shooting at a parking garage on the university's campus in Charlottesville on Sunday night, while two others were wounded and receiving medical care.

They identified the suspect as UVA student Christopher Darnell Jones, who remains at large. Police and university officials told students to shelter in place, and warned that Jones is considered "armed and dangerous."

As the manhunt continues, a profile of Jones by the Richmond Times-Dispatch has surfaced, describing his "fractured path to graduation" from Petersburg High School.

The article, published in June 2018, described how Jones and his fellow high school graduates were rehearsing their steps ahead of their graduation ceremony.

It noted that while Jones was the only one who was going to be attending UVA that fall, he looked upset. His peers wanted to know, the article said, "Why wasn't he smiling?"

According to the profile, Jones was proud of how far he had come, but was also reminiscing about the journey he had taken to reach that point.

It describes his difficult childhood, growing up with three younger siblings in two-bedroom apartments in the Essex Village and Mosby Court housing complexes in Richmond.

He was 5 when his parents got divorced, and he didn't see his father again until he was a teenager.

"My dad and me were really close. It just hurt me when he had to leave," Jones told the newspaper. "That was one of the most traumatic things that happened to me in my life. I didn't understand why he left. When I went to school, people didn't understand me."

He was described as smart, getting good grades in school. "When I come into the classrooms, everything flowed," Jones said. "You knew what you were walking into every day."

But he also got into fights, leading to suspensions. Jones said he would get upset when he felt his intelligence was being insulted.

When he was in the sixth grade, his family moved to Varina, Virginia, where he attended a specialty school for communications and continued getting good grades.

But his relationship with his mother deteriorated, and he moved to Petersburg in 2016 to live with his grandmother.

Jones was able let go of his anger with the help of several mentors, according to the article.

"He always had strong goals. He was ambitious, but his anger simply got in the way," Xavier Richardson, who met Jones when he was in 11th grade, told the Times-Dispatch.

Richardson also helped Jones navigate much of his financial aid package for UVA and said he planned to give him any help he could while he was studying there.

In the article, Jones expressed gratitude for the mentors in his life. "If it wasn't for these people in my life, I would've been just another kid whose dad left him," he said.

"Don't let your surroundings, anyone or any person, determine who you are going to be. You're great. You're beautiful. You're amazing. You're going to do great things in life. Don't let anybody tell you any different."