NORFOLK, Va. — Tributes are pouring in for the three University of Virginia (UVA) football players shot and killed Sunday night.
The tragedy sparked heartache, sadness and reflections on social media.
Family, friends, and people across the country have sent prayers online, and their words are shedding more light on the personalities of these students both on and off the field.
Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr. are gone too soon. Many UVA football players wrote that their hearts were broken, and three of their brothers are gone.
“It’s just heartbreaking," said UVA Football Player Aaron Faumui.
On Monday, Faumui was at the crime scene, devastated, as law enforcement processed the area.
“Seeing three young boys; had a whole future ahead of them. Just to see them gone it’s just heartbreaking," he said.
Other players wrote on Twitter that they were great players and “even better great men off the field”
A UVA professor, Jack Hamilton, shared a vignette of the first time he met Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler.
In a tweet, he said that he helped Chandler declare an American Studies major that he always had a huge smile; that he was gregarious and funny. Hamilton said he was "one of those people who’s just impossible not to like.”
Hamilton also said Lavel Davis Jr. seemed to go out of his way to make friends with non-athletes.
Chandler’s former high school football coach in North Carolina also spoke about the young man.
“He was going to be a leader in whatever he chose to do. In whatever field he wanted to work in and unfortunately, the world lost a good one," said Hough High School football coach Matthew Jenkins.
Banners of the three players' jersey numbers were up on the UVA grounds, have also been circulating on social media: 1, 15, 41.
For many, those are more than numbers. They represent family, students and loved ones who had had bright futures.
Governor Glenn Youngkin has ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff throughout the commonwealth starting Tuesday.