One campus shooting victim out of hospital

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — One of three Northern Arizona University fraternity members wounded in a campus shooting had never met the student suspected of opening fire on the group, the victim’s mother said Saturday.

Kimberly Prato said one of the first things she asked her son, Nicholas, when she saw him in a Flagstaff hospital was who shot him.

“He said ‘Mom, I don’t know the kid. I never saw him before in my life,” Prato said. “He said ‘I saw him for a second and then saw a flashlight and heard the gunshots.'”

Authorities say freshman Steven Jones opened fire with a .40-caliber handgun after a brawl erupted between two groups of students early Friday. Student Colin Brough was killed. All four victims belonged to Delta Chi fraternity.

Nicholas Prato suffered a gunshot wound to his neck but was released by Friday afternoon.

“It completely went through his neck. If it was a quarter inch to the left, it would have hit his carotid artery,” Kimberly Prato said.

The other two victims, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring, remain hospitalized.

Brough and Prato were best friends, according to Kimberly Prato. Nicholas Prato, a junior, attended a candlelight vigil Friday held by the fraternity.

Jones was booked Friday on one count of first-degree homicide and three counts of aggravated assault. He told police he shot the group of students only after they hit him in the face and chased him, according to court documents.

A judge ordered him held on a $2 million bond.