“But I never got the call,” Happy Perry said.
Minutes later, her husband, Sean Perry, asked if she had spoken with their son, because he saw something on social media about an active shooter at U-Va.
She tried to call D’Sean again, but there was no answer. She called the school, his football coaches, campus police. A hospital and a hotline. D’Sean’s friends. She booked a flight from Miami to Virginia.
“I was just waiting for him to call me and let me know he’s safe,” she said softly.
A month after D’Sean Perry and two of his football teammates were fatally shot as they returned from the class trip, his parents say they have questions about why the violence was not prevented, including by the university their son loved. They said they will advocate for changes in gun laws and awareness of mental health. And they called on college athletes to use their increasingly powerful social media platforms to amplify those calls.
“I just don’t want any mother, father, family, sister, brother, aunt, uncle to have to go through what we’re going through right now,” Happy Perry said. “If my voice can help — then that’s a start.”
Perry, a student-athlete known both for his intense athletic and academic discipline and his joyous playfulness, was just months from graduating when he and teammates Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler were killed. Two other classmates were injured in the shooting.
Another student who had been on the bus, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was arrested the next day.
Sean and Happy Perry said they had never heard of Jones from their son, and that other victims’ families had said the same. They knew of no conflict or tension.
But the university was already aware of Jones. Another student said Jones said he had a gun, drawing the attention of the university’s threat assessment team in mid-September, school officials said after the shooting. His roommate had not seen a gun, and Jones had not been known to make threats. But officials learned he had been convicted of a misdemeanor concealed-weapon violation last year and failed to disclose it, and the school said he did not cooperate when questioned.
“I want the world to know that D’Sean was a loving, caring, honorable son,” Happy Perry said. “He cared about family. He cared about his faith. And he cared about football. And he did everything right, and the way it should have been. And six months before he’s scheduled to walk across the stage for his college graduation — [it’s] such a tragedy. You know, it’s just insane. And — unreal.”
Michael Haggard, an attorney whose son played football with D’Sean Perry at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami, said the family is waiting for results of an investigation into the shooting. But they know that when people have mental health issues and easy access to weapons, “that combination is fatal, time and time again.”
Haggard said once the university heard concerns about a possible gun and other issues, it should have strictly enforced the rule banning guns on campus.
“Once they found out all that information, he should have been suspended, or put off campus,” Happy Perry said, while the threat assessment process was pending. “I feel like something could have been done to prevent this.”
Last week, Virginia’s attorney general announced that a former U.S. attorney and two other lawyers had been chosen to lead an independent investigation, requested by U-Va. officials, into the shooting and the events that led up to it.
The university had requested the external review. “As we continue to mourn the loss of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry, we are committed to working with the special counsel team to learn as much as we can about this event and the circumstances that led to it, and to apply those lessons to keep our community safe,” U-Va. President Jim Ryan said in a statement after the special counsel team was announced.
An attorney for Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Perrys said they are hoping to send a message that goes far beyond U-Va.
“We just want to bring awareness to mental health, and we want to open up the eyes, hearts and minds of the college football world and asked that they join us in this fight for gun control,” Happy Perry said.
“We’re looking for other students, college athletes, to get the word out,” Sean Perry said, because it’s not just his family. “We’ve got to stand by each other right now. That’s what we need right now.”
Sean Perry was wearing a U-Va. tie, and his wife had a U-Va. boutonniere, Haggard said, as they spoke by phone. “They love the school; the school gave D’Sean a great opportunity, he loved the school.” But, he said, “The school failed. … It’s pretty obvious.”
U-Va. can be part of the solution, he said, and lead the way for other schools dealing with tips about students with guns and how to manage those. The Perrys are hoping U-Va. will be there with them, “not just in the mourning process, flying teams to funerals — which is an unbelievable gesture — but about stopping this in the future,” he said.
The shooting devastated the campus, which gathered for an emotional memorial honoring Davis, Chandler and Perry. And the impact was felt far beyond Virginia. College football teams and fans across the country offered tributes at their next games, some wearing the school’s blue and orange, affixing stickers to their helmets, or holding signs in support of U-Va.
Classmates who played football with Perry at Gulliver in Miami and at U-Va. spoke about how much they looked up to him, for his faith, his discipline on and off the field, his strength and his kindness.
Perry, whose mother is a postal worker and whose father worked in corrections, had written repeatedly about his goals and his determination to make his parents and city proud. He hoped to play in the NFL and continue studying art after graduation.
The young man was all business on the football field but he was playful at home, making his family smile and surprising them with practical jokes — popping out in a Halloween mask or teasing his mother with lizards he had coaxed onto a leaf to make her laugh.
“But in my talks with him, it was always, ‘I love you, Mom, you don’t have to worry.’ And, ‘I’ll be home.’”