A deadly day on college campuses
Shootings in Arizona and Texas leave two students dead and four injured. At one school, it was the 2nd attack in 12 hours.
Two unrelated shootings at universities in Arizona and Texas on Friday left two students dead and four injured, continuing a skein of campus violence following last week’s rampage at an Oregon community college that killed nine.
The shooter in the Texas Southern University slaying remains at large. In the Northern Arizona University attack, an 18-year-old freshman has been charged with first-degree murder. Authorities say he opened fire on a group of students after a late-night conflict in a parking lot of the Flagstaff campus, leaving one student dead and three other people injured early Friday.
One student was shot as he cradled a wounded friend, police said.
Hours later at the campus in Houston, one student was killed and another person injured after someone opened fire outside a dormitory.
The shootings come as a wave of gun violence on college campuses throughout the U.S. has reignited the debate over gun control. The shootings also came on the day President Obama visited Roseburg, Ore., to console the wounded and the family members of the eight students and teacher who were shot and killed at Umpqua Community College.
The Northern Arizona student shot to death was identified as Colin Brough, an athletic young man originally from Annapolis, Md. Brough was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, an honor society for first-year students, and served as a lifeguard at the Flagstaff Aquaplex, a city swimming facility.
Brough also had worked as a lifeguard in Castle Rock, Colo., where he graduated from Castle View High School in 2013.
Brough was a “superlighthearted, happy person, very, very peaceful,” said one of his friends from Annapolis. “I’ve been crying all morning, I can’t believe it, man,” said Jason Egelanian, 20. “He’s my best friend. I’ve been bawling my eyes out. … I’m angry. A lot of anger, too. I’m angry at this person who decided he had to shoot people. … It’s a good chance I’ll be in that trial room watching that kid get sent off to the death penalty in Arizona.”
The Northern Arizona University gunman, identified as Steven Jones, surrendered his handgun to campus police and was taken into custody shortly after the 1:20 a.m. incident, authorities said.
In addition to the murder charge, Jones faces three counts of aggravated assault and was set to appear in court late Friday.
The students wounded in the attack were Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring. Their conditions were not released, but campus Police Chief Greg Fowler said that “it would be safe to say [they were shot] multiple times.”
“Nick Dimo Prato was hit in the neck and is currently in ICU,” his aunt, Terri Prato Gilgour, wrote on Facebook. She could not be immediately reached for comment. “Sadly, his best friend was killed in front of him.”
Prato’s Facebook profile suggests he is from Oceanside, Calif. His girlfriend, Abbey Norcutt, apparently witnessed the shooting and was also shot at, according to her father. “Nick ran to help his friend,” Earl Norcutt, who said he was at an emergency room in Flagstaff, wrote in a Facebook post.
“Shooter had apparently fallen, then turned and shot Nick as he was holding his friend. Our Abbey was holding the other, second one shot, and was calling 911 as Nick was shot. She escaped being hit by the shooter as she ran,” the post said.
Authorities could not immediately say what led up to the confrontation.
An Instagram photo from 13 weeks ago showed Jones wearing Americanflag attire and holding a shotgun over his shoulder. Another photo, from more than two years ago, showed Jones posing with a submachine gun. “It’s a full auto kinda day,” he wrote.
At Texas Southern University in Houston, gunfire erupted outside the University Courtyard dormitory about 11:35 a.m., said Eva Pickens, the school’s associate vice president of communications.
An 18-year-old freshman was killed, Pickens said. The victim’s name was being withheld pending notification of his family. A wounded victim was in stable condition at a Houston-area hospital, Pickens said.
Police have detained two “persons of interest,” but the shooter remains at large.
The shooting was the second in 12 hours on that campus. One person was injured in a shooting outside the same dormitory around midnight Thursday, according to a statement issued by the school.
matt.pearce@latimes.com james.queally@latimes.com