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A young Virginia Cavaliers fan gifted the family of D'Sean Perry -- one of the three UVA football players killed in a November 2022 on-campus shooting -- a glove worn by the late cornerback.
Perry's father, Sean, shared a post on his Twitter account @ImageSports5, which showed the glove, two photos of his son giving the fan the gloves and a handwritten note from a 13-year-old named Cole regarding the gift inside a large picture frame.
"I just want to say that I am so sorry for your loss," the note states. "D'Sean Perry meant a lot to me. I went to the Virginia vs. Georgia Tech game. At the end, D'Sean waved me over to the sideline and gave me his gloves! That made me feel really special.
"He was so nice to me. Those gloves were the best birthday present that I could have ever asked for. So I wanted to give you one of his gloves. I really want you to have it I have his other one so we can remember him forever."
Perry and teammates Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler were returning to the UVA campus from a field trip when the shooting took place on November 13, 2022. Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, a former walk-on football player, was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, among other charges, in relation to the shooting.
Jones was previously convicted in relation to a reckless driving and hit and run incident, as well as a concealed weapons charge in 2021, all of which received suspended sentences, remains in custody in Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, according to online records accessed by CNN. Jones opened fire on the bus after it returned to the Charlottesville campus, killing Chandler, Davis and Perry.
UVA student Ryan Lynch was among the students on the bus during the shooting and said she saw Jones initially push Davis.
“After he pushed him, he was like ‘You guys are always messing with me.’ Said something weird like that, but it was very bizarre because they didn’t talk to him the whole trip," Lynch told KYW-TV.
“They just kept coming, more and more gunshots,” Lynch added. “We thought he was going to shoot everyone on the bus.”
Lynch said "the shooter just kind of walked or, like, skipped off the bus" after the incident took place. The University of Virginia later admitted to knowing that Jones was previously convicted of a weapons charge weeks prior to the triple murder of the three football players.