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Shooting At Northern Arizona University Campus: 1 Dead, 3 Injured

Officials at Northern Arizona University say a suspect is in custody following a shooting at the campus of the Flagstaff school in the early hours of Friday morning. One person was killed; three other victims are in the hospital.

"The first call of shots fired came in at 1:20 a.m.," the school says via Facebook. It adds that the campus is not on lockdown.

All of the victims are students; some were shot multiple times, police say.

Update at 9:30 a.m. ET: Fraternity Says Its Members Were Involved

The headquarters of Delta Chi has issued a statement confirming that its members were involved in the shooting, although the fraternity adds that "this incident had no ties to the chapter."

The group did not release any other details.

Update at 9:18 a.m. ET: Shooting Followed A Dispute

NAU Police Chief G.T. Fowler said the shooting stems from a conflict that developed between two groups of students, saying that after the dispute escalated, one of the students "produced a handgun" and opened fire.

Fowler identified the suspect in the case as Steven Jones, an 18-year-old freshman. Fowler said that it's not yet known what the dispute was about, but that Jones did not flee the scene and is cooperating with police.

The victims haven't been publicly identified; they are all male, Fowler said.

"This is not going to be a normal day at NAU, school president Rita Cheng said at the morning news conference. "Our hearts are going to be heavy."

The shooting took place outside the Mountain View residence hall.

At the morning news conference, dozens of students showed up to get an update on the situation at the school, far outnumbering journalists in the room. Before the briefing began, many students gave each other hugs of consolation.

On the NAU Facebook page and at the news conference, students said they didn't receive an alert about the shooting until more than an hour after the incident began.

Fowler said police quickly determined that the situation was contained and that the alert was sent as soon as possible.

The shooting happened 10 days before the school, whose mascot is a Lumberjack, was scheduled to begin its homecoming celebration.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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