Three dead, two injured in University of Virginia campus shooting

 Campus shooting at the University of Virginia claims 3 lives and injures 2 more.

Christopher Darnell Jones, a student, has been named as the suspect by police, who have issued a shelter-in-place advisory.

Police confirmed through Twitter that three persons were murdered and two more injured in a shooting on the University of Virginia's campus.

Several different law enforcement organizations are currently searching for the student suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones, who was named by campus police.

As of this writing, I am heartbroken to announce that three fatalities have resulted from the shooting; two additional victims were injured and are currently getting medical care," university president James E. Ryan wrote in a message to the community early on Monday morning.

We are in close contact with the victims' loved ones and will provide further information as it becomes available.

Our University Police have coordinated with other law enforcement agencies in an effort to locate and apprehend the offender; we will keep the campus informed as more information becomes available.

No classes will be held on Monday, and students and staff will have access to counseling and mental health services, Ryan said.

Students are "genuinely afraid," according to Eva Surovell, editor-in-chief of the Cavalier Daily, who spoke with The Washington Post.

She explained that her phone was inundated with texts "the second we all got that information that there was an active shooter." To paraphrase, "You just don't really imagine something like this could happen to your neighborhood until it does."

This is not the first time that a shooting has occurred on a Virginia university campus.

After receiving reports of a suspicious guy approaching a school building in February, two campus police officers were fatally shot at Bridgewater College.

On April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University killed 32 people before taking his own life in what was then one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

There has been a spate of shootings on American college and high school campuses in recent years, and Sunday's is the latest. The violence has renewed the discussion on whether or not to restrict the availability of firearms in the country.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES