Photo: Steve Helber
Slain Virginia Cavaliers wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr. will be posthumously honored by his home state of South Carolina with a highway renamed in his honor next month, his cousin, Sean Lampkin, confirmed on Twitter Thursday (March 2).
A bill calling for a portion of a highway in Davis' hometown of Dorchester to be named after him recently passed the South Carolina General Assembly and a ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 29, according to Lampkin, who said Davis' mother, Simone, was informed of the news on Thursday.
"Lavel’s mother, Simone, has informed me that the State of SC has decided to name a highway after Lavel Tyler Norman Davis Jr. near his HS," Lampkin tweeted. "They will have a dedication ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 from 12pm - 2pm. Continuing your legacy @LDJxlll!"
Davis and teammates D'Sean Perry 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.
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