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'Amazing gesture': Patriots owner Robert Kraft lends jet to UV football players to attend teammates' funerals

Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr and D'Sean Perry had their funerals in their hometowns of Miami, Virginia Beach and North Charleston

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA: University of Virginia football players were able to attend the funerals of their three teammates who were killed earlier this month in a New England Patriots' jet. Robert Kraft, Patriots owner and CEO, sent the plane to Virginia to fly the teammates  for free so that they could attend the funerals of their three teammates - Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr and D'Sean Perry. The funerals were held in the hometowns of each player - Miami, Virginia Beach and North Charleston, South Carolina,  according to CBS Sports.

Chandler, Davis Jr, and Perry were murdered on Sunday, November 13 after returning from a field trip in Washington, DC. Police responded to a report of shooting at about 10:30 pm and arrested a 22-year-old, former university football player for the shooting.

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Brandon Lloyd, a former sportswriter from Charlottesville, Virginia, tweeted a picture of the jet at Charlottesville Albemarle Airport on Friday. "Just saw New England's plane at CHO," Brandon Lloyd tweeted. "What an amazing gesture." 

UVA President Jim Ryan in a press conference said Chandler was a second-year student, Davis was a third-year student, and Perry was a fourth-year student. Two other students were wounded in the shooting.

The funeral for Perry was held in Miami on Saturday, November 26. Chandler's funeral was in Virginia Beach on Sunday, November 27, and Davis' was in South Carolina on Wednesday, November 30, CBS Sports reported. 

The suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, has been charged with three second-degree murders and three felonies using a firearm. In order to account for the shootings of the two new victims, two extra charges of malicious wounding and two firearms offenses were filed, according to James Hingeley, Commonwealth attorney for Albemarle County.

A memorial service was held in Charlottesville Saturday, November 26 to honor the three players, with thousands joining the Virginia Football team and coaches.

The service came a day after Virginia basketball players returned to the court for the first time since the shooting, as per Daily Mail.

"Only time will reveal God's purpose in this adversity. Going forward I'm confident that all three are rejoicing in paradise, speaking good things on behalf of each of us in preparation for the time we will all be together again," first-year head coach Tony Elliott said at the memorial. To the family members and friends seated in the first two rows, Elliott added, "I am grateful for your willingness to share your family's gifts with all of us."

Athletic director Carla Williams presented accounts of this week's interactions with athletes' families and said the tragedy "has pushed me to my limits." "We are better and will do better because we will make sure their legacies never fade at the University of Virginia," she vowed, telling the families, "We loved your sons."