Tragedy to Purpose – Perris Jones

Perris Jones

How we kept dealing with it was just spending time with each other. I remember the first team meeting we had the day after it happened, and we just kind of just sat there, didn't really say much, you know. Honestly, just spend time with one another and and enjoy one another's company and and cherish that, you know, because I feel like in a way we didn't fully appreciate the time that we had with our fallen teammates, so we wanted to make sure that we didn't make that same mistake twice. So, and I think that was healing in a lot of ways. Just being able to kind of dive into one another and and embrace one another, and not even just unpack the situation, but just spend time. You know, watch some movies or play some video games or eat some pizza, like just small things is kind of what followed in the days after that? Just a lot of quality time with our teammates is what we did.

Molly Schnellenberger

Welcome to Solving Gun Violence, a student-led podcast from the University of Virginia's Gun Violence Solutions Project, which is dedicated to finding effective strategies to combat one of America's most urgent issues: gun violence. My name is Molly K. Schnellenberger, and I'm a second year at the University of Virginia and today's host. Each of our episodes features experts sharing actionable solutions to improve community safety while upholding individual rights. Today, I'm joined by a very special guest, Perris Jones. Perris has two degrees from the University of Virginia, a bachelor's in 2022 and a master's in 2024. He is known for his walk-on success for the Virginia Cavaliers football team, where he climbed the depth chart to become the starting running back in fall of 2022. On November 13, 2022, however, four of his teammates were shot, and three, Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D'Sean Perry, were killed on a bus returning from a class trip. Perris Jones is here today to talk about his experience of gun violence and his story of resilience throughout his career. Perris, thank you so much for being here.

Perris Jones

Of course, it's a blessing to be here. Thank you for having me.

Molly Schnellenberger

So, could you start by telling us a bit about where you're from and how you ended up at UVA?

Perris Jones

For sure. So, I am from a small town called Arcadia, Florida. Most people don't know where that is, so I just say Sarasota. And I am a military kid, so I've kind of been all over and lived in Washington State, Michigan, and ultimately in Virginia for about the last decade or so. So as I was playing sports, I wanted to play Division One ball. Didn't have a lot of choices because I was kind of on the shorter side of the spectrum. So I was going to go to Yale, and then before I signed there, I had gotten approached by Coach Howe from UVA's coaching staff at the time, and he offered me a position as a walk-on, which is just you know an opportunity, and that's kind of all I needed and all I wanted. So, rolled the dice and took a chance, and ended up in Seaville.

Molly Schnellenberger

Wow! Yeah, just came out of nowhere. What a blessing!

Perris Jones

Amen. Amen.

Molly Schnellenberger

Moving on, talking a little bit more about UVA. What was your experience like as a student and as an athlete before the shooting? Of course.

Perris Jones

Well, as an athlete at first, I mean, transparently, it was horrible. But just being being a walk-on, it requires a lot and it takes a lot out of you. And I I don't know if I was prepared for that when I immediately came to campus, it was something that I grew to love and and developed a passion for. But immediately it was a bit of a challenge, and academically it was as well. But that was just more so because of the freedom that college brings. You know, I came from a boarding school in high school, so it was kind of you know micromanaging every aspect of your life to kind of having the freedom to do whatever you like to do whenever you like to do it. So I struggled with that at first, but then you know, thankful for the academic staff at UVA and my teammates that made my football experience better as well as my academic experience. So it ended up becoming a really really positive thing and something that I wouldn't be where I am in life today, without.

Molly Schnellenberger

Thank you for that answer. That's really great. I would like to agree that honestly, even just coming in as a student, not even having the athlete part is extremely stressful. So I can't imagine. I mean, that's got to take some serious mental fortitude. Mad respect for that.

Perris Jones

Appreciate that.

Molly Schnellenberger

Our next question is unfortunately a little bit heavier. To your comfort level, could you tell me about the November 13, 2022 shooting from your perspective?

Perris Jones

Yeah, I could definitely do that. So that that evening, it was started off as a regular day, just kind of getting prepared for the week, if you will, and I'm a pretty routine guy, so I pretty much have the same schedule week in and week out. And I was kind of going through my little routine. Sundays are kind of my reset days, you know, cleaning the house and doing the homework and watching some kind of movie or something to get ready for the week. And so I was actually asleep when everything started taking place, and one of my other roommates, Ronnie Walker, at the time, he came and banged on my door to to wake me up and alert me that something was wrong, and you know that kind of I didn't really understand the magnitude of the situation, but I could hear the worry in his voice, and so that kind of sparked me to become a little bit worried, and and then we we got in our cars and drove around campus looking and trying to figure out if we can gain any information about Mike or our teammates, and we couldn't find anything. And ultimately, that landed us to go to the hospital, and and we saw Coach Elliott there, but we didn't put two and two together as to why he would be there. And of course, he told us to to go home, and he would let us know when he knows something, just to kind of preserve whatever of our mental health that we could at that point in time, and obviously we did not listen to him. We kept driving around and and looking and looking and searching, and we didn't come up with anything. And so we ultimately made the decision to sit in the Wegmans parking lot. And the longer we sat and checked social media, that sinking feeling that you get when something's wrong, it just began to weigh on us, and and we knew something wasn't right, and and then we got the news and kind of just embraced each other, and shed some tears with one another, and tried to figure out what to do next. You know how we were going to pick the pieces up and how we were going to move forward, and and ultimately we did that just together. So relying on one another, spend a lot of time with each other. So that's kind of how that night transpired for me, from my perspective.

Molly Schnellenberger

Yeah, I can't imagine the panic and confusion throughout that entire process. I mean, going to the hospital, even your coach not really knowing anything, that's just so scary. And I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Let's talk a little bit about the days after the shooting, and sort of how how these developments came to you, how how you learned all the details, and how you kept going throughout the next few days.

Perris Jones

Yeah, for sure. The so the days transpiring when they were still looking looking for the shooter, and that information that came out. So I actually lived with him my first year of college. The person that ended up committing the the actions and taking those those individuals' lives. I lived with him. He was my my roommate when I first got to campus in Charlottesville. So had a little bit of a relationship with him and knew him pretty well. Knew his family pretty well, so that was a big shock for me, and and kind of was a hard pill to swallow, seeing as though I couldn't understand why he would do that, because who I had known him to be wasn't that, so that was a bit of a weird dynamic to kind of battle internally, and then just how we kept dealing with it was just spending time with each other. I remember the first team meeting we had the day after it happened, and we just kind of just sat there, didn't really say much, you know. Honestly, just spend time with one another and and enjoy one another's company and and cherish that, you know. Because I feel like in a way we didn't fully appreciate the time that we had with our fallen teammates, so we wanted to make sure that we didn't make that same mistake twice. So, and I think that was healing in a lot of ways. Just being able to kind of dive into one another and and embrace one another, and not even just unpack the situation, but just spend time, you know, watch some movies or play some video games or eat some pizza, like just small things is kind of what followed in the days after that. Just a lot of quality time with our teammates is is what we did.