3 UVa football players killed in campus shooting honored with posthumous degrees

The three University of Virginia football players who were killed in a shooting last month have been honored with posthumous degrees, school officials said.

D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. were killed Nov. 13 when a student suspect opened fire on a charter bus returning to campus from a class trip to Washington, D.C., to see a play. Two other students were injured and have been released from the hospital.

Suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr was arrested after a manhunt and charged with murder in their deaths.

The star athletes’ posthumous degrees were approved by the College of Arts & Sciences departments and the Office of the Provost.

The degrees were printed and shared with family members as school officials attended each student’s hometown funeral.

Davis was a third-year student from Ridgeville, South Carolina, who majored in African American and African studies and played wide receiver.

He was set to graduate in December and was a beloved first child and a “role model” to his younger brother and sister, Davis' father Thaddeus Lavel Davis previously told NBC News.

The university's Director of Athletics Carla Williams attended Davis' funeral on Nov. 30 in North Charleston, and said it was obvious in talking with his family “why earning his degree from the University of Virginia was so important to Lavel."

"He worked extremely hard for it," she said.

Chandler, a second-year student from Huntersville, North Carolina, majored in American studies, and was also a wide receiver for the Virginia Cavaliers.

He had joined Virginia’s program after transferring from the University of Wisconsin.

“He had a lasting impact on his teammates, even after he left UW, which is a testament to the type of person he was,” interim Badgers coach Jim Leonhard said after his death.

Perry, a fourth-year student of Miami, double majored in studio art and African American and African studies, and played linebacker for the football team.

His parents, Sean and Happy Perry, said, "Football and art was his passion, but the love that he had for his family, friends and his community was proven time and time again through his candid dedication."

Williams said in a statement Monday, “It was a great honor to be a part of presenting these diplomas to the families of Devin, Lavel and D’Sean.”