UVA football player Mike Hollins gives first interview since massacre that left 3 teammates dead

The University of Virginia football player who survived an on-campus shooting that left three teammates dead says the gunman had a “numb” expression as he carried out the attack.

Mike Hollins escaped the bus where suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. allegedly opened fire on Nov. 13 but followed his instinct to return and help others, he said Thursday on “Good Morning America.”

Hollins, a running back for the Virginia Cavaliers, was one of two victims who survived the rampage that killed D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis.

“I felt him hit me in my back, but I knew I wasn’t going down without a fight,” Hollins told interviewer Michael Strahan. “I found a pre-med student. … She was there to help me. She kept me calm, kept my breathing under control, was checking my pulse until the ambulance came.”

Hollins underwent surgery and learned two days later that three Cavaliers football players had died.

“I’ve never cried like that before. I lost a brother that day. I loved Lavel with all my heart. Loved Devin with all my heart. But D’Sean, it was different with him,” Hollins said, choking back tears. “Man, that was my brother. It was tragic hearing that he was gone.”

Hollins suffered injuries to his small intestines and kidney, but the bullet missed his spine by about two centimeters, he said. He and the other survivor, UVA student Marlee Morgan, were discharged last month after being hospitalized.

The charges against Jones, a UVA student and former Cavaliers football player, include three counts of second-degree murder. Hollins says he didn’t know Jones. A motive has not been released.