A San Diego man was among the three students injured in Friday's shooting at Northern Arizona University, his mother told NBC 7.
One student was killed and three others were wounded after a freshman opened fire during a confrontation between two separate groups of students in Flagstaff, Arizona, police said.
Among the victims was Nicholas Prato of Rancho Penasquitos. He was being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center along with victims Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring.
The deceased student was identified by NAU officials as Colin Brough.
Prato's mother Kimberly Dimo Prato, spoke with NBC 7 briefly as she prepared to travel to Arizona Friday morning.
A 2 a.m. phone call from Flagstaff officials told her Nicholas had been shot in the neck. The bullet went in and out of the neck and her son was able to hold on, she explained.
He even managed to get a brief description of the suspect and give that to authorities before he was transported, she said.
Local
The alleged gunman, who was identified as eighteen-year-old Steven Jones, was take into custody at the scene “without further trouble," campus police chief Greg Fowler said.
The shooting occurred outside Mountain View Hall dormitory, where most of the school's fraternity members live.
A court document says Jones retrieved a gun from his car following a fistfight.
Jones told NAU police that several people approached him and two of his friends as they were outside a residence early Friday. He said a fight ensued and he was punched in the face.
Jones says he was chased by several people as he ran to his car and then he yelled at them that he had a gun.
As two people approached him, Jones says he shot both of them. Witnesses say the victims were about 10 feet away.
Prato was visiting a friend with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting and did not know the alleged gunman, his mother said.
The young man identified by NAU officials as the one victim killed in the shooting, Colin Brough, was Nicholas' best friend, his mother said.
On his Facebook page, Nicholas Prato identifies himself as a 2013 graduate of West View High School in the Poway Unified School District.
Delta Chi executive director Justin Sherman said in a letter in the aftermath of the shooting that Brough, Prato, Zientek and Piring are members of the fraternity.
The alleged gunman was not a member of the fraternity.
Classes will go on as scheduled on Friday, but “this is not going to be a normal day at NAU," Rita Cheng, the university's president said. "Our hearts are heavy."
