Mike Hollins, one of the victims of the shooting at the University of Virginia last weekend, was unaware of the deaths of three of his football teammates as he recovers in a hospital, his mother says. Hollins, a running back at UVA, is still recovering after he was shot in the back on Sunday night following a class field trip.
A video of him taking his first steps since the shooting surfaced as his sister, Ebony Hollins-Allen, commented on his recovery.
“He’s walking,” Hollins-Allen said. “Of course, with assistance with his walker, but he’s walking. He’s walking.”
“Everybody is amazed at how much and how fast he is progressing. And I believe it is because he is determined,” she said. “His progress in his recovery is so rapid at this point, that, you know, it could be soon, hopefully soon. But we’re going to be here as long as we need to, as long as his recovery takes. We’re going to be here.”
Hollins underwent two surgeries because of the shooting.
Three players — Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry — died in the incident. In an interview with CBS News, his mother, Brenda Hollins, said that her son cannot talk, and is using a pen and paper to communicate while in the hospital.
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“He can’t talk, but he has written D’Sean’s name,” she told CBS News of Mike’s condition after the shooting. “He has written Devin’s name. And then I believe it was an L — I don’t know what he was writing at the bottom, but he was taking the marker and beating on it because he wants to know.”
She later added she wasn’t ready to tell her son of the deaths of his friends.
“That’s my baby. I could absolutely see him doing that,” she added. “When he loves you, he loves you. He works hard and he sets his goals high. He strives. He is a fighter.”
A suspect in the shooting, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was taken into custody Monday. He faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.
