Thank God they’ve arrested the alleged murderer. Until 10:30 this morning, the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville had been on lockdown and all classes were canceled after the unthinkable happened Late Sunday night.

…The shooting unfolded at about 10:30 p.m. at an on-campus parking garage. Gunfire erupted on a charter bus while students were returning from a class field trip to see a play, according to UVA officials.

The suspect was a UVA student and former football team member, who left 3 former teammates dead and 2 other folks injured in the hail of bullets. UVA President Jim Ryan had the sad task of both informing both the student body and the university community and warning them to be both on the lookout and take extreme precautionary measures at the same time.

An update on the active shooter incident at UVA: pic.twitter.com/LLshF8JJcR

— Jim Ryan (@presjimryan) November 14, 2022

Apparently, this Jones already had a bit of a reputation – including a weapons charge – and hadn’t been on the football team for over a year (No explanation was forthcoming for that as yet.).

…”Mr. Jones has also come to the attention of our threat assessment team because he was involved in a hazing investigation of some sort,” Longo said. “I don’t know the facts and circumstances of that investigation. I know it was eventually closed due to witnesses who would not cooperate with the process. But through the course of the threat assessment team’s investigation, we learned of a prior criminal incident involving a concealed weapon violation that occurred outside the city of Charlottesville in February 2021. What’s interesting about that case if he’s required as a student at the University of Virginia to report that, and he never did, so the university has taken appropriate administrative charges through the university’s judiciary council, and that matter is still pending adjudication.”

Well, hello. Choir boy, he was not, and again with an accused murderer who had a previous weapons charge. What else is going to come out about this young man? I’m already seeing stories in local papers (another in a 2018 profile which is unfortunately paywalled) about anger issues.

…He grew up in the Essex Village and Mosby Court public housing complexes in Richmond, where he lived with his parents and three siblings, according to a 2018 Richmond Times-Dispatch article.

His parents divorced when he was 5, and he didn’t see his father again until Jones was a teenager. Jones called his father’s departure “one of the most traumatic things that happened to me in my life.”

After his father left, Jones got in fights in school, leading to suspensions. His mother worked the graveyard shift, and Jones would walk to a nearby grocery store to by Ramen noodles or bologna. On special nights, he’d purchase a box of Church’s Chicken.

I’m sorry – none of that in any way excuses any of this.

Mercifully, Jones was apprehended without any further incident around 11 this morning.

The man suspected of fatally shooting three University of Virginia students, and injuring two others, is now in police custody.

UVA Police Chief Tim Longo was speaking to the press Monday, November 14, when it was revealed that 23-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. had been arrested. Henrico Police announced he was taken into custody without incident before 11 a.m. on Edgelawn Street. He is charged with three counts of second-degree murder.

What an absolutely senseless, horrific thing, losing those young men. Our hearts go out to their families.

RIP to Lavel Davis, Devin Chandler, & D’Sean Perry …… Thoughts and prayers to the UVA team and community, absolute tragedy for the families of these 3 young men. pic.twitter.com/YD8tWiETlm

— Coach Rahn (@CoachRobRahn) November 14, 2022

Ever helpful to report current events as they happen and as they want them seen, the Washington Post stepped into the breach with a manipulative classic by even their low standards.

Are you kidding me?

Ducking for a little cover, they deleted the Tweet with the “austere religious scholar” vibes, but not before plenty of people took note and proceeded to parse the phrasing.

UVA shooter had a mostly peaceful flourishing. https://t.co/ybZjFf9zQ3

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 14, 2022

The comments are brutal, as well they should be. More disturbingly, however, they left the story up…

…as written, with that headline intact. Apparently, content-wise…

…it is everything you might have suspicion it would be.

What exactly is the WaPo trying to say here? I think we all know and have seen it play out a million times before. It’s not enough to report on the pointless deaths of three men in the full flourish of health and promise, or the suffering of the wounded. The WaPo has to run into the fray with the excuse broom to try to sweep the stench of responsibility for the crime from the alleged perpetrator before all the facts are even known. WaPo has to somehow mitigate his finger on the trigger and the blood on the deck…because he’s black?

Well, if it was a white guy, you'd be seeing a totally different headline. This is just the truth.

— R⊕ß Dεη†⊕η – Iηgεηï⊕uš Kηïgh† ⊕ƒ ﾚα Mαηςhα⚔️ (@RobbieVanGogh) November 14, 2022

How disgraceful. How craven.

How blatantly hypocritical. I can name one school shooter off the top of my head who had a hideous childhood that ran completely through his high school years prior to his slaughtering those same classmates. I don’t recall the WaPo once running interference for him from feeling sympatico with his childhood troubles. Do they think we can’t see that? Do they think we can’t see them pounce immediately on a God-awful tragedy in order to twist the narrative to their purposes before the facts have even come out?

Hey there. We can.

WaPo should have just left their motto at Democracy dies, since they have the shiv out for everything democracy stands for time and again.