Americas

Home page

Americas

Northern Arizona University student kills one, injures three with handgun: police

09 October 2015 18:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. One person was killed and three were injured in a shooting outside a dormitory early Friday morning at Northern Arizona University in the city of Flagstaff, APA reports quoting yahoonews.

The gunman is now in custody and the surviving victims are being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center, the school said.

“We are asking the faculty to be sensitive to the needs of our students and their families,” Northern State University President Rita Cheng said during a news conference at 6 a.m. local time. “This is not going to be a normal day at NAU. Our hearts are heavy.”

Authorities identified the student who died as Colin Brough and the injured victims as Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring.

Northern Arizona University Police Chief Gregory T. Fowler identified the gunman as 18-year-old student Steven Jones and said he used a handgun.

Jones allegedly fired his gun at 1:20 a.m. during a confrontation that spiraled out of control outside Mountainview Hall on the northeast side of the campus.

The suspect had stopped shooting the firearm by the time campus police arrived and did not attempt to flee the scene, according to Fowler. Jones was taken into custody without further incident.

“A great many people are involved and need to be interviewed, and a lot of things need to be accomplished before we can release a great many details,” Fowler said.

All of the victims are male, he said.

The Northern Arizona University Police Department, the Flagstaff Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies are at the school investigating the incident.

Once the sun comes up, Fowler said, the officers will have a better field of view for analyzing the crime scene, and more information will become available.

“We can’t release a lot of additional details at this time,” he said.

Support services are available for students, faculty and staff at the campus’ Health and Learning Center. The university also set up a family assistance center in the ballroom of the 1899 Bar & Grill.