There was a shooting very early this morning on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. However, as details emerge, this is developing not as a “school shooting,” but as a confrontation turned violent.
The shooting occurred after a confrontation between two student groups, University Police Chief Greg Fowler said in a press conference. It occurred in a parking lot near Mountain View Hall, a student residence located on the eastern edge of campus near the school’s football stadium, Eric Dieterle, a spokesman for the Flagstaff university, told Fox News.
Dieterle said the shooting happened at approximately 1:20 a.m. local time. Mountain View Hall residents received four mobile phone alerts and were told to stay indoors, but the campus was not placed on lockdown.
Fowler said the victims were believed to be shot multiple times and are being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center near the NAU campus, but their conditions are unknown.
One person is dead, three are injured, and the shooter, identified as 18 year old Steven Jones, is already in custody.
The slain student has been identified as Colin Brough, according to the NAU website. The three others wounded in the incident are being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center. They are Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring, the school said.
This story is getting national attention because it happened on a school campus. But even though it qualifies as a “mass” shooting, it doesn’t fit the current political narrative of a “school shooting.” An 18 year old with a gun (which he was not legally allowed to possess) got in a fight and tried to end it by shooting. If it had happened on the south side of Chicago, it would have received local attention and nothing more. This story is as sad as any shooting anywhere that takes a life, but add the magic word “school” to it and it gets national attention.
And since President Obama cannot make a big political statement about it, unlike the shooting at Umpqua Community College, he will ignore it. After all, if he paid attention to this shooting at Northern Arizona University and treated it like Roseburg…
And we all know that this administration is invested in willful ignorance of violence when it doesn’t offer them a political opportunity.
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