A former student at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff has been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter and three counts of aggravated assault in a 2015 deadly shooting in a parking lot outside a residence hall.
KNXV-TV reports that Steven Jones, a Northern Arizona University student at the time, opened fire on a group of people in 2015 in a campus parking lot after he says he was attacked over a small prank between two rival fraternities.
[From 2015: Shooting at Northern Arizona University leaves 1 student dead, 3 wounded]
Jones admitted to fatally shooting Colin Brough and wounding three other students, but told police he did it out of self-defense. The prosecutors, however, said that Jones could have left the area and did not need to resort to using a weapon.
The fight started outside the Mountain View residence hall after Jones and two pledges from his fraternity carried out a prank by ringing the doorbell of an apartment and running away.
The prank set off a fight between Jones and students in the apartment from a rival fraternity. Jones got punched in the face during the altercation.
Jones had said he went back toward the group and fired his gun, but he didn't mean to hurt anyone. He testified he fired several shots "to stop the immediate threat that was coming at me."
