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Victim, families from UVA shooting speak out to demand change

The parents of D'Sean Perry, one of the UVA football players shot and killed, held a news conference calling for stricter gun laws and mental health awareness.

NORFOLK, Va. — Parents who lost their son in the deadly shooting at the University of Virginia and a victim are sharing their grief with the world just over a month later.

The parents of D'Sean Perry, one of the UVA football players shot and killed, held a news conference Thursday calling for stricter gun laws and mental health awareness. 

“So that we can put a stop to what’s happened to my family and so it won't happen to other families in America," Happy Perry, D'Sean's mother, said.

Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. also died in the shooting. Two others were injured: Marlee Morgan and Michael Hollins Jr. UVA student Christopher Darnell Jones was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, using a handgun in the commission of a felony and malicious bodily injury.

“In that moment, I knew we had to get off that bus because it can get a lot worse," Hollins said in a one-on-one interview with ABC News. 

The shooting happened last month as a group of students returned back to campus from a field trip in Washington D.C.

“I got hit in the small intestines, kidney and they were trying to see if it damaged my bladder by the grace of god it missed my spine by I think two centimeters or something like that," Hollins recalled.

Hollins said he was shot while trying to help others on the bus when he saw the shooter.

“We locked eyes and that was it. It was just a cold look. I don’t know it's just a numb look," Hollins said.

Hollins wants to remember his friends and teammates. 

“I love Lavel with all my heart, I love Devin with all my heart but D’Sean it was different with him it was. Man, that was my brother. It was tragic hearing that," Hollins said.

Now, he hopes the public will never forget his three friends. 

“Everything I do from here on will be in their name and their light and I just want to do as much as I can to keep their flame lit," Hollins said.

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