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It was a brotherhood, their moms said, a friendship built around playing football at the University of Virginia, barbecuing ribs, going to Bible study, fishing, playing video games and working clay on the pottery wheel. They talked about what they would do after graduating, the business they wanted to start together.
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When she called her son Mike, D’Sean would be there, Brenda Hollins said. Or he would tell her he was about to swing by to pick D’Sean up.
“There was no D’Sean without Mike, and there was no Mike without D’Sean,” Happy Perry, D’Sean’s mother, said Saturday.
Until last November, when the two returned to the Charlottesville campus after a class trip to see a play. Police say a student on the bus opened fire. D’Sean Perry was killed, along with their teammates Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler.
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Michael Hollins, Jr., who ran off the bus after hearing gunfire, was shot after he headed back to try to tell other students to flee. He and another injured student survived.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who was also on the class trip, was charged with murder in the shooting.
Now, one year later, the mothers of D’Sean and Mike have forged their own close friendship. They talk often, just as their sons once did. They lean on each another, just as their sons did. They pray together, as their sons did.
And they’re both asking for answers. Some, they hope, will come from an external review into the shooting and the university’s interactions with Jones before that day.
U-Va. has faced many questions about what the university knew, and how it responded: Before the shooting, U-Va. and its threat-assessment team were aware of Jones, after another student said Jones had told him he had a gun. U-Va. officials asked the state for the external review, but haven’t yet released the findings publicly.
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“I am eager to see the report,” Happy Perry said. “Just like any other mother I want to know what happened to my child. Without having that ‘why,’ I’m unable to heal — I’m unable to move forward.”
U-Va. tragedy: Remembering the 3 football players killed in shooting
U-Va. and the Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said on Oct. 20 that the review by a law firm and former U.S. attorney had been completed. The AG’s office, which provides legal advice and representation to public colleges in Virginia, said “attorney-client ethical rules” prohibited it from sharing the report with the public. The university said it had a goal of sharing it publicly by early November.
“University leaders are actively in the process of reviewing the reports, both to ensure their factual accuracy and to evaluate their recommendations against the many steps the University has already taken to strengthen our public safety policies and practices,” Brian Coy, a spokesman for U-Va., wrote in an email Friday.
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U-Va. officials will provide an update as soon as they can, Coy said.
He said the university is focused on honoring the lives lost, and offering the community a chance to remember, grieve and come together. A series of campus activities are planned to mark Monday’s anniversary.
How a U-Va. class trip ended in gunfire and death: ‘Get off the bus!’
‘You have to live for him’
Happy Perry had spoken to her son shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. He always called her to make sure she got home safe from work. He told her he’d call her back when he was home from the trip to Washington to see a play about Emmett Till. That call never came.
That night, Brenda Hollins had been feeling uneasy and had finally gotten to sleep when she got a call from a hospital. Her son had been shot and was going in for emergency surgery. Her immediate thought was the group had been robbed in Washington — the truth was unimaginable. She flew from their home in Baton Rouge and saw him, in a room full of machines beeping and yet, intense silence, “that still silence, because he’s just there — he isn’t moving.”
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It was the most helpless feeling, she said, “knowing the other boys didn’t make it, and not knowing if your child is going to make it.”
After the initial surgery he was trying to ask something, while he was intubated, with mitts on his hands to keep him from pulling out lines. He wrote D’Sean’s name on a whiteboard.
Doctors had advised the family not to tell him about the deaths until after a second surgery was over. When she tried to tell him they didn’t know, he pounded on the board, staring at her, pleading for the truth with his eyes.
When he came off the ventilator, his first question was about D’Sean, and his teammates.
The room was silent for a moment. Her daughter shook her head. “He made this sound,” Brenda Hollins said, like she had never heard in her life. She couldn’t hug him. There was nothing she, or anyone else, could do.
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He said, “'I don’t know how I’m going to live without him.'”
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She told him, “You have to live for him. You have to live for him.”
Within days of the shooting, U-Va. and its board of visitors asked the attorney general to appoint outside counsel to review the university’s safety policies, how it assessed the potential threat from the shooter and how it responded to the shooting.
A student had reported earlier that fall that Jones said he had a gun, the school said. Jones’s roommate had not seen a gun, according to a university spokesman. But the threat-assessment team learned that Jones had been convicted of a misdemeanor concealed-weapon violation the year before, and had not disclosed the conviction to the school as required. Jones did not cooperate with efforts by university officials to learn more. In late October, school officials told Jones he faced disciplinary action.
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More than two weeks later, he allegedly opened fire on the bus. Police said Jones fled the scene that night, prompting a massive manhunt while thousands of terrified students sheltered in place overnight. He was taken into custody at 11 a.m. the next day about 80 miles from U-Va.
Threat assessment teams make tough calls.
D’Sean Perry’s death at U-Va. could have been prevented, parents say
In September, a special grand jury upgraded the charges against Jones, returning a 13-count indictment that included charges of aggravated murder for allegedly shooting and killing Chandler, Davis and Perry.
The charges, which carry a mandatory life sentence, are the most serious murder counts available in Virginia. The next hearing in the case is on Dec. 4. Jones has not entered a plea. Elizabeth P. Murtagh, the public defender representing Jones, said she could not comment on an ongoing case.
As the criminal proceedings continue, attention is again turning toward U-Va.
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“I feel that if they had acted on what they knew, then this would never have happened,” Happy Perry said. The university had warnings, and should have taken action, she said, to keep the shooter off campus. If they had, “my child would be alive. Lavel would be alive. Devin would be alive. Mike wouldn’t be wounded. Marlee [Morgan] would not have been wounded. And all the others that were on the bus would not have to go through the grief, the daily grief that we all have to endure.”
Brenda Hollins said they don’t just want the past documented.
“I just feel that the University of Virginia now has a huge platform to make a difference,” Happy Perry said. “If we all just come together … I believe that the University of Virginia can now become the leader for all other universities on campus safety, and gun violence prevention.”
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She said she has seen changes on grounds, more security, and efforts to increase research into gun violence, but she wants to see more, such as advocacy for stricter gun laws.
“Just do what you would want done for your children,” Brenda Hollins said.
Leaning on each other
Brenda Hollins said her son’s recovery was like childhood all over again, baby steps. He kept pushing, kept walking, then running. “He knew his brothers would want him to keep going,” she said.
“I get strength from God, I get strength from Mike, I also get strength from Happy,” Brenda Hollins said. “She is rooted in her faith. … For all she has gone through, I still lean on her. When Mike is having a hard day, I call Happy. … She loves him like I love him.” Those bonds, she said, are a blessing.
“She leans on me, I lean on her,” said Happy Perry. “We can pray it through. I love on Mike every chance I get.” He texts her, she said, to let her know he’s thinking of her, that he loves her.
Mike Hollins was not available Saturday for comment. “Mike is taking the time now to quietly reflect with his family on the last year,” his mother said.
He’s studying for a master’s degree. He began another football season this fall, wearing wristbands in the school’s colors with his teammates’ numbers. A Rottweiler puppy — named Emi after D’Sean Perry’s middle name Emir — helps keep him calm, brings him joy, just as his friend used to do.
More and more often, Brenda Hollins said her son talks about his friend. He tells her what D’Sean would say, or when eating something, says, “'D would love this.'”
“It makes me happy because it isn’t a moment of grief,” she said. “It’s a moment of joy or happiness when he thinks of him.”
On Friday, the university offered counseling services and space for reflection on campus as the anniversary approached.
On Sunday afternoon, James E. Ryan, the president of U-Va., posted a video on social media telling the campus community that Monday would be a hard day, and urging people to honor those killed and injured in the attack by supporting one another.
On Monday, they plan to have events including a banner on which students can write messages, an opportunity for people to visit plaques in the football stadium honoring Perry, Davis, and Chandler. Happy Perry is expected to speak on a panel on healing after gun violence.
She will be there when the bells toll, and there for the moment of silence.
She tries to keep her thoughts on uplifting her son’s life and legacy — he was so joyful, he loved, and was loved, by so many people. His friendship with Mike Hollins was immediate, and lasting. “Everybody goes off to college and they look for somebody who is like them, and mindful and brotherly,” she said.
“Something great is going to come out of such a bad tragedy. I just don’t know what God has in store.”
Justin Jouvenal contributed to this report.
The anniversary of the University of Virginia shooting The latest: Running back Mike Hollins returned to the football field in his first game since he was wounded in the U-Va. campus shooting. The parents of football player D’Sean Perry have questions about why the violence was not prevented.
What do we know about the shooting? A witness revealed new details about the U-Va. shooting, where a gunman opened fire on bus full of students, authorities confirmed. Additionally, the University of Virginia failed to report the suspected shooter to a student-run judiciary committee.
Who are the shooting victims? Officials identified the deceased victims as U-Va. football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis and D’Sean Perry.
Who is accused of the UVA shooting? 23-year-old student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is the accused gunman in the U-Va. mass shooting. What was U-Va. shooting suspect’s motive? In an initial court appearance, a prosecutor claims that suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. fired at a sleeping football player.
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