BERKELEY, Calif. -- Police say a 20-year-old Berkeley man has admitted to stabbing an engineering student near the University of California, Berkeley campus during an early morning melee.

Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said Andrew Thomas Hoeft-Edenfield was arrested Saturday afternoon, 12 hours after he allegedly killed 21-year-old Christopher Wootton in a sorority house parking lot.

The Berkeley City College student was booked on suspicion of homicide and is being held without bail.

The director of Wootton's fraternity said the nuclear engineering student was set to graduate from the university this month at the top of his class.

Police said an argument between the suspect and the victim led to the stabbing, though Joshua Wootton said his brother may have been trying to break up a fight.

At about 2:45 a.m., the Police Department received a report of someone brandishing a knife, and officers responded to the rear of 2421 Piedmont Ave., a Chi Omega sorority house, Kusmiss said.

Officers were then directed to 2434 Warring St., about a block east of the Piedmont address, where they met up with a crowd of about 20 college-age males who were circled around Wootton, according to Kusmiss.

Wootton suffered a stab wound to the left side of his upper chest. He was transported to a local trauma center, where he was pronounced dead, Kusmiss said.

Detectives interviewed several witnesses today and believe the suspect stabbed Wootton, then fled westbound on Channing Way and tossed a bloody knife that was later found by police, according to Kusmiss.

Wootton, a Bellflower, Calif., resident, served as vice president of the Sigma Pi fraternity his junior year, and was the fraternity's pledge educator this year, according to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.

Wootton planned to study nuclear engineering in graduate school at UC Berkeley following his graduation this month, Birgeneau said.

"This futile and senseless killing is a loss felt by us all, including his teachers, friends and especially his fraternity brothers at Sigma Pi," Birgeneau said in a prepared statement.

The last murder of a Berkeley student was in 1998. Kenneth Ishida, 20, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity member, was carjacked and kidnapped from the garage of his apartment building, Kusmiss said. The suspect shot and killed Ishida and dumped his body and his car.

"Homicides involving UC Berkeley students historically have been very, very rare," Kusmiss said.

Classes at UC Berkeley will continue Monday as scheduled, according to Marie Felde, a campus spokeswoman. University Health Services at the Tang Center will provide counseling for students, faculty and staff. Students may contact Counseling and Psychological Services at (510) 642-9494, and faculty and staff may contact CARE Services at (510) 643-7754.