One person was killed and three others were wounded in an early-morning shooting at Northern Arizona University before the shooter was taken into custody, police said early Friday.
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“Jones was involved in an altercation with students at the school, the nature of which remains unknown”, he said, per Newsweek.
A statement released by the university said NAU police were notified at 1:20 a.m. of shots fired and that the suspect was detained and the situation secured at 1:22 a.m.
The parking lot where the shooting happened is just outside Mountain View Hall dormitory on the Flagstaff campus, which provides housing for numerous campus’ sororities and fraternities.
It was not clear if any of the people sought by police were students or how they were connected to the university.
Also caught in the hail of bullets were fraternity brothers Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring.
The suspect was arrested after the incident as he co-operated with police when they arrived. They are all being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center. All the counts were presented in front of the suspect, which is said to have accepted in the court.
Rumors on the Twitter spread fast that the shooting involved members of the school’s Delta Chi fraternity.
Speaking to NBC Phoenix, Mark White, a father of a NAU student said that Jones ‘was a really nice kid. He says a group chased him to his auto, where he retrieved a handgun.
Northern Arizona University says an error in its alert system kept a few people on its distribution list from getting an initial message warning of an active shooter. Following the shooting, she said police, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles swarmed the area, closing the area off. “I could hear students crying and yelling, ‘This isn’t real, this isn’t real!’ and others saying, ‘Yes it is, yes it is!'” LaPierre says.
Told Cheng: ‘This is not going to be a normal day at NAU, ‘. “When I think of Flagstaff, I think safety”, he said. “We do not have any information on the victims nor do we know if the deceased individual is a member of the Fraternity”, the statement read. She said her heart and those of other Flagstaff residents are hurting.
Pursuant to the shooting questions were raised whether the shooting was motivated as a fraternity chapter shooting, with a few fraternity members of NAU’s Chi society telling the Washington Post that the shooting ‘was not a chapter related incident’.
Fowler said it appeared the victims had been shot multiple times. Today, my thoughts are with the victims and their families and our entire community. As a mother, I already worry about sending my child off to college and now, given the appalling state of gun violence in this country, I also worry about potential campus shootings.
The Flagstaff campus has more than 20,000 students enrolled.
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The next shooting in Texas occurred later on Friday on the border of the Houston campus in the University Courtyard Apartments.
