At a Familiar Gathering Place, Students Wrestle With Unfamiliar Emotions

November 16, 2022 • Renee Grutzik, amn8sb@virginia.edu

Student Experience

At a Familiar Gathering Place, Students Wrestle With Unfamiliar Emotions

November 16, 2022

Students by the dozens, bundled against a November chill, wrote messages of remembrance on the University of Virginia’s landmark Beta Bridge Wednesday afternoon, three days after a gunman killed three football players in a shooting spree and wounded two other students just a few steps away.

“Even if you didn’t know the victims, you know people who know them,” Samantha Simmons, a second-year student, said. She purchased flowers from Trader Joe’s in the morning to place on the bridge, a landmark that has been University students’ informal billboard since the 1970s. “It’s such a nice and beautiful thing for everyone to be together during this time and to see the community come together.”

Students painted the bridge’s concrete wall in Cavalier orange and added jersey numbers and initials in blue and white to honor Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry, the three student-athletes shot to death Sunday night on a bus after a class field trip. Police charged another student with the murders.

Students passing over the bridge were invited to use black markers to write messages on the wall.

“This was a tragic loss of life,” said Noyanika Vattathara, a second-year student who helped organize the bridge signing. “Gun violence is an issue that is not OK. We have been dealing with it for so long. … We are creating a space for students to write a message of support so people who walk by know that there is a community of support here for everyone.”

Graham Bucko, a third-year student, said his thoughts have been awash in a flurry of emotions since Sunday night.

“I wrote, ‘May we lead lives that honor their memory.’ I wrote this because, obviously, we can’t change what happened to our community,” Bucko said. “But what I am thinking about is how I am going to try to make an impact with my life that would be able to honor them in some way.

“I hope they would be proud if they were still here.”

Beta Bridge lined with flowers and the text: #1 LD #15DC #41 DP

Students painted Beta Bridge to honor Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry. Other students placed flowers above the names and initials. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

All day long, students visited the bridge and used black markers to write their condolences and messages honoring the football players. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)

Students Lining Beta Bridge looking at the Beta Bridge memorial

Students pause on Beta Bridge to reflect on the tragedy that shook the University this week. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)

A student writes condolences on Beta Bridge’s concrete wall, painted to honor three football players who died in a shooting Sunday. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)

Student signing Beta Bridge memorial near the text that reads #15 DC

Flowers line the wall above Devin Chandler’s number and initials. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

Students standing looking at the Beta Bridge memorial waiting to write

The memorial on Beta Bridge is one of several that students have created in the days since the shootings. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)

Two students hug as they look at the Beta Bridge Memorial

Two students console each other on Beta Bridge in a moment of grief. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

Students link arms and hands as they look at the Beta Bridge Memorial

Students pause to read the messages classmates wrote on the concrete wall. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications

Three small football drawn on Beta Bridge with the numbers 1, 41, and 15 written inside of them.

Flowers and hand-drawn footballs are some of the ways students honored their slain classmates. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

Student writing on Beta Bridge in honor of the shooting victims.

A student adds her condolences to the hundreds of others that filled the wall on Beta Bridge Wednesday. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

Students standing in front of and signing Beta Bridge Memorial for shooting victims

Behind the students, the message on Beta Bridge reads, “Forever in our hearts,” followed by the numbers and initials of the football players who died Sunday.