Northern Arizona University student was shot and wounded while cradling his dying fraternity brother during shooting

One of the Northern Arizona University students who was wounded in Friday's gun attack was shot after he ran to tend to his dying fraternity brother, his girlfriend's father wrote in a Facebook post.

Steven Jones, an 18-year-old fraternity pledge at Sigma Chi, shot four members of the Delta Chi fraternity, killing Colin Brough and wounding Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring.

After Brough was hit twice in the chest and shoulder by blasts from Jones' .40-caliber handgun, Prato rushed to his friend's side while his girlfriend, Abbey Norcutt, helped another injured student.

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Nick Prato (pictured left and right) rushed to help his Delta Chi fraternity brother Colin Brough after he was shot

Prato rushed to his friend's side while his girlfriend, Abbey Norcutt (right), helped another injured student

Brough, a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, died after being shot twice by Steven Jones on Friday 

After he was shot while 'holding his friend', Prato underwent surgery at the emergency room and was 'A-ok' after doctors closed up exit and entry wounds, Norcutt's father Earl wrote on Facebook.

Steven Jones was booked for first-degree homicide and three counts of aggravated assault

Mr Norcutt wrote: 'Nick ran to help his friend. 

'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.' 

Flagstaff Medical Center said it couldn't release any information on the conditions of the victims. 

It is unclear why the overnight brawl between two groups of students escalated into gun violence.

Jones told police he shot the group of students only after they hit him in the face and chased him, according to court documents. 

He also claimed he tried to administer first aid to one of the victims, but prosecutors said the suspect's account amounted to a 'self-serving' statement and alleged Jones was the aggressor.

'There is no indication of self-defense here,' Deputy Coconino County Attorney Ammon Barker said. 

'The defendant had retreated from the fight, he obtained a gun and then he went back into the fray.'

Jones, whose Instagram page is covered with photos of himself holding guns, has told police that he fired in self-defense after being punched in the face and fleeing to his car 

Brough's frat brothers Kyle Zientek (left), Prato (center) and Nicholas Piring (right) were also shot and injured

Prato underwent surgery at the emergency room and was 'A-ok' after doctors closed up exit and entry wounds

Jones told investigators that several people approached him and two friends while they were outside a residence. 

A fight broke out between the two groups and Jones said he was hit in the face. 

He said a group chased him to his car, where he retrieved a handgun. 

Two of the victims had stopped following him but turned around when Jones yelled that he had a gun, court documents said.

At one point, a group tried to subdue Jones, who fired a shot in the air. 

Jones said he then dropped his firearm, which had a flashlight attached to it.

He was booked Friday for one count of first-degree homicide and three counts of aggravated assault.

The shooting occurred in a parking lot just outside Mountain View Hall dormitory on the Flagstaff campus, which provides housing for many of the campus' sororities and fraternities. 

Several frantic people called 911 to report the shooting, some looking down onto a parking lot from their dorm windows and seeing people with gunshot wounds.

'I first thought it was a joke but people started screaming,' said one man, breathing heavily on the phone.

Dispatchers instructed some callers to stay inside, lock their doors and turn off the lights while advising help was on the way. 

However, Jones' claim of self-defense has been disputed by the county attorney, who said he could easily have walked away from the confrontation but chose to get his gun and 'go back into the fray'

Last night a candlelit vigil was held for the victims on the campus in Flagstaff, Arizona, where it is believed all of the fraternity brothers were studying business

Students weep during a vigil held last night for Colin Brough, the student killed in a shooting at EAU yesterday, and Kyle Zientek, Nicholas Prato and Nicholas Piring, who were all injured

'This is not going to be a normal day at NAU,' said school President Rita Cheng. 'Our hearts are heavy.'

Defense attorney Burges McCowan asked Flagstaff Justice Court Judge Paul Christian to allow Jones to be released to his parents in Glendale, Arizona, saying he has no prior criminal history and is a lifelong resident of Arizona. 

Jones wore an NAU hoodie in an Instagram photo

His bond was set at $2million.

'He has no other place to go,' McCowan said.

Brough was from Castle Rock, Colorado, about 30 miles south of downtown Denver. 

He loved to play lacrosse and wanted to be successful so he could help other people, said his cousin, Ryan Jernegan of Woodbury, New Jersey. 

He also worked as a lifeguard at a Flagstaff recreation center.

'He was the happiest person that you probably would ever meet,' Jernegan said.

He worked as a cashier at the Puma outlet store in Castle Rock during the summer after graduating high school. 

Manager Chauncey Musser remembered him as an outgoing employee with a seemingly bottomless supply of energy.

Alex McIntosh, a friend of Zientek, said he worked part time at the High Country Conference Center while attending school full time.

'He's very calm, very respectful, has a great manner, calm demeanor and you'd never expect him to be caught up in something like this,' McIntosh said.

The shooting set off panic at the Flagstaff campus as students heard gunshots and quickly took to social media to figure out what happened.

Student Maria Gonzalez told The Associated Press that she at first suspected firecrackers when the shooting happened.

'I was studying for an exam, so I looked out the window and see two people running, and that's when I realized they weren't fireworks, they were actually gunshots,' she said.

The university's Delta Chi fraternity chapter held a candlelight ceremony to honor the victims of the shooting at 7pm on Friday.

The fraternity also collected donations at the vigil in memory of Brough and the three students who were injured. 

Dozens of students were present at 6am Friday morning for a press conference on the shooting 

It's still unclear what propelled Jones to open fire at the early Friday morning fraternity party. Police say the shooting happened after a fight broke out between two 'student groups' 

The early morning press conference was an emotional affair for many of the students gathered 

The Friday morning shooting marked the 144th shooting at a school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut. 

The Flagstaff shooting came on the same day that President Barack Obama visited Roseburg, Oregon, where eight students and a teacher were shot and killed last week at Umpqua Community College.

In Texas, a student was killed and another person was wounded in a shooting outside a Texas Southern University student-housing complex on Friday. 

A brief panic broke out in Kentucky hours later when there were reports of shots fired on a college campus, but the reports turned out to be unfounded.

Northern Arizona University is a four-year public university that has more than 25,000 total undergraduate students at the campus in Flagstaff, a city about two hours north of Phoenix.

The city of 70,000 people has a reputation for being a safe place and typically records only one murder per year.

'It's crazy. You don't think this stuff happens. When I think of Flagstaff, I think safety,' said freshman Cameron Sands, who had pledged at a fraternity and was supposed to move into Mountain View Hall on Friday.