Northern Arizona University shooting leaves one dead and three injured

An early morning confrontation between two groups of Northern Arizona University students escalated into a shooting that left one student dead and three more injured, campus police said on Friday.

An 18-year-old NAU student, identified as freshman Steven Jones, was taken into custody after allegedly killing one student and injuring three others outside of a fraternity dormitory, NAU police chief Gregory T Fowler said during a press conference on Friday morning.

NAU president Rita Cheng called the shooting “isolated” and “unprecedented” speaking at the press conference.

“This is not going to be a normal day at NAU,” she told reporters and students on Friday morning. “Our hearts are heavy.”

The university named the four victims.

Colin Brough, a Freshman at the university, was killed.

Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring are being treated at Flagstaff medical center; their conditions are unknown.

The campus chapter of the Delta Chi fraternity has confirmed to local media outlets that the three wounded victims were all members. It is unclear if the alleged gunman or the deceased victim had any involvement in Greek life.

According to authorities, the shooting occurred in a campus parking lot near the Mountain View residence hall located on the north-east end of the Flagstaff campus around 1.20 am local time.

Northern Arizona University officials said campus police had the suspect in custody within two minutes of first word of the incident.

A statement released by the university said NAU police were notified at 1.20am of shots fired and that the suspect was detained and the situation secured at 1.22am.

The statement did not say what was going on at the shooting scene when police arrived.

Emergency medical personnel were on the scene a 1.33am.

Fowler said police do not know what the argument was about, but at some point Jones opened fire with a handgun. The suspect stopped shooting and submitted to officers when they arrived on the scene, Fowler said. He is cooperating with police.

Fowler said the victims, all male freshmen, sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

Cheng said classes would take place as scheduled on Friday, adding that faculty and staff would be available to assist students as they dealt with the shooting.

Mountain View Hall houses campus students involved in fraternities and sororities – the university societies named after Greek letters meant to provide students with a family-like support system.

A lockdown on the campus was lifted after the suspected gunman was taken into custody. One of three public universities in the state, NAU has more than 25,000 total undergraduates.

Arizona governor Doug Ducey offered his condolences to the victims in a statement.

“This heartbreaking incident will impact many of our fellow citizens, and I ask all Arizonans to keep them and the family of the individual lost in their thoughts and prayers as they cope with this tragedy,” Ducey said.

Responding to the shooting, Arizona senator and former presidential candidate John McCain called the incident “horrific” and offered his thoughts and prayers to the victims in a statement on Friday.

“I appreciate the efforts of all state and local law enforcement officials, first responders and school administrators, and continue to pray for the recovery of the injured, as well as all those in the NAU community who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” McCain wrote.

The Arizona board of regents, the governing body of the state’s public universities, prohibits students from carrying guns on its campuses, though the state has very lax gun laws and a strong shooting culture.

Arizona congressman Trent Franks was asked on CNN about arming students. “I understand that on this campus in certain circumstances that is not allowed,” he said, adding: “These shooters deliberately choose a place where they know no one can defend themselves, where they know no one is armed. I think that’s a tragedy.”

He said that last week’s shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, “that wasn’t stopped until the police came, who were armed”.

He claimed that if criminals did not have guns “they would find some mechanism to hurt people”.

Barack Obama is visiting Roseburg on Friday to meet the victims of the shooting there, in which a gunman killed nine people and himself.

The Washington Post reported that the president was considering executive action to impose new background-check requirements for buyers who purchase weapons from high-volume gun dealers, citing an anonymous senior administration official.

Referring to those in Roseburg who object to Obama’s focus on gun control since the shooting, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: “Those individuals have nothing to fear. The fact is the president has made clear that the goal of his visit is to spend time with the families of those who are so deeply affected by this terrible tragedy.”