CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – While the crime scene tape has come down, University of Virginia students are just beginning to mourn.
“It’s just tragic you know. You always hear about this stuff happening at other [schools]. You never really think that it will happen where you go to school, so just seeing it can happen anywhere, anytime is just really eye-opening,” second-year Juan Arratia said.
Banners saying “Cville strong” with three numbers – the jersey numbers of Lavel Davis, D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler – started emerging from homes across campus.
Three Zeta Psi brothers put up banners to show their support.
“Even though we may have not known these guys personally, our lives were intertwined in many ways. It’s just, we wanted to show our support not only to the people around us, but to the football (team) that we are going to be standing by them,” one of the Zeta Psi brothers said.
After a nearly 12-hour-long shelter in place for students, they emerged from their dorms to a different Charlottesville.
“Shocking, really shocking. You can just kind of feel it’s a ghost town and that the community is really hurting – I’d say that,” first-year Culler McKay said.