Two people embrace outside a Northern Arizona University student dormitory in Flagstaff, Ariz., after an early morning confrontation between two groups of students escalated into gunfire, Oct. 9, 2015. [Photo/IC]

PHOENIX - An 18-year-old student killed one peer and wounded three others when he opened fire during a confrontation on the Northern Arizona University campus early on Friday before being arrested, in another shooting to hit a US school, authorities said.

The suspected gunman was identified as Steven Jones, a freshman at the university in Flagstaff, campus police chief Gregory Fowler said. He said Jones pulled the handgun in a "confrontation" with several students.

Colin Brough was killed in the shooting, according to the university. The three injured students, identified as Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center, Fowler said. Their conditions were not disclosed.

The shooting occurred just hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to visit Roseburg, Oregon to meet privately with families of nine people killed in a mass shooting at a community college there last week.