Wording not preserved
A initial alert message is documented at this point in the sequence, but its exact wording is not preserved in the public record. The public edition displays only confirmed alert text.
NAU
One student killed and three injured in a shooting outside a residence hall
AI-generated · every claim is source-linkedConfirmed Threat
A confrontation between two groups of students outside Mountain View Hall at 1:20 AM MST on October 9, 2015 ended when freshman Steven Jones opened fire, killing one student and injuring three others. The NAU Alert system failed to reach the full campus due to a dispatcher's error, sending the initial notification to only 700 of 18,000 registered recipients.
- Alerts
- 2
- Response
- min
- Killed
- 1
- Injured
- 3
~29,000 studentsNAU Alert
Official alert policy
Read when and how NAU says it will use NAU Alert: summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Documented Timeline
Alert Sequence
2 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim
Some messages in this sequence are documented (their existence, timing, and channel are sourced) but their exact wording is not preserved in the public record. Those entries appear as placeholders; only confirmed text is displayed.
Verified verbatimKNAU Arizona Public Radio reporting that quotes the verbatim 2:52 AM MST NAU Alert text63 chars
Situation stabilized and shooter in custody. Details to follow.
This was the first message sent to the full 18,000-person distribution list, arriving roughly 90 minutes after the shooting
For most of the campus community, this all-clear was the first notification they received about the incident
'Shooter in custody' is unambiguous and operational, but 'Details to follow' postpones location and casualty information that the community would want immediately
The short 64-character message reflects the SMS-first design constraint of the NAU Alert system
Context
Background
The October 9, 2015 shooting at Northern Arizona University occurred in a parking lot near Mountain View Hall on the Flagstaff campus at approximately 1:20 AM MST. A confrontation between two groups of students escalated when freshman Steven Jones, 18, pulled a handgun and fired on the other group. Colin Brough was killed, and Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek, and Nicholas Piring were injured and transported to Flagstaff Medical Center. Jones was arrested at the scene by campus police.
The incident exposed a critical vulnerability in NAU's emergency notification system. The dispatcher tasked with sending the NAU Alert selected multiple recipient groups but failed to click the separately positioned 'all users' checkbox. As a result, only about 700 of 18,000 registered users received the initial alert. The Mountain View Hall residence director, who was among the 700 recipients, reacted quickly by calling police and activating the building's public address system. It was not until 2:52 AM MST, roughly 90 minutes later, that a corrected alert reached the full campus community. The university attributed the error to interface design: the 'all users' option was visually separated from the other checkboxes and was the least frequently used option.
Analysis
Key Findings
Initial NAU Alert reached only 700 of 18,000 registered users due to dispatcher clicking individual groups instead of 'all users'
The 'all users' checkbox was positioned separately and was the least-used option, creating a design-driven failure point
Residence hall director who received the partial alert immediately activated the PA system, providing a critical backup notification
Full campus notification did not go out until 2:52 AM MST on October 9, 2015, approximately 90 minutes after the shooting
Outcome
Steven Jones was arrested at the scene. One student, Colin Brough, was killed. Three others were hospitalized with injuries. After an initial mistrial, Jones pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault and was sentenced in February 2020 to six years in prison.
Reception
Community Response
How the campus community received and interpreted the alert(s), in their own words.
Poorly received
The NAU Alert rollout drew scrutiny for being slow and incomplete: human error meant the initial text reached only about 700 of roughly 18,000 subscribers, and the campus-wide alert did not go out until about 2:52 a.m. MST on October 9, 2015, more than an hour after the 1:20 a.m. shooting at Mountain View Hall. Police Chief Greg Fowler defended the timing as precautionary because officers had already secured the scene, while CNN noted that some questioned why notifications took over an hour.
“In the situation here, it was stabilized right away by the officers … So they put the alert out as a precautionary measure, not necessarily as one that the students actively had to protect themselves.”
Reactions to the alert, drawn from press coverage; follow each link to verify. Quotes are reproduced from reporting and not independently re-confirmed against the original source.
Provenance
Sources
- News
- Official
- Student Paper
- News
Cite this case
Campus Alert Archive. "Northern Arizona University: One student killed and three injured in a shooting outside a residence hall." Incident of October 9, 2015. Added April 2026; last updated June 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/northern-arizona-university-shooting-2015-10-09/
Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.
Tags
shootingnotification-errorhuman-errornotification-systempartial-distributionresidence-hall2015
Added April 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion