SPOKANE, Wash. -- Eastern Washington University defensive lineman Tony Seau was recovering at a local hospital Sunday after being shot in the head at a party, police said.

The 25-year-old brother of San Diego Chargers All-Pro linebacker Junior Seau was upgraded from critical to serious condition at a local hospital, police spokesman Dick Cottam said. He declined to identify the hospital.

A nursing supervisor at Sacred Heart Medical Center, the trauma center handling critical injuries for the area when the shooting occurred Friday night, refused to say whether Seau was being treated there Sunday. A clerk at the region's other trauma center, Deaconess Medical Center, said Seau had not been treated there over the weekend.

The shooting occurred just before midnight Friday at a party attended by as many as 200 people in the south end of Spokane, Cottam said.

Several arguments broke out when revelers began yelling rival gang names, witnesses told police.

During one such confrontation, a shot was fired into Seau's head and he fell to the pavement, the Spokesman-Review reported.

``I turned around and he was just laying there,'' said Spokane Community College track athlete Orlando Clay, who staged the party with teammates to celebrate the end of track season.

``My roommate had to hold the guy's head,'' Clay told KXLY-TV. ``I think that's the only reason he is alive.''

Several witnesses fled, along with the person believed to have shot Seau. Police had not yet identified a suspect, Cottam said.

``A lot of people split when that gunshot was fired,'' Cottam said. ``And the ones who ran, as you can imagine, must have felt like they had some reason to run.''

There were no other reported injuries at the party, but dozens of police were summoned to disperse the crowd.

Seau, a 5-foot-11, 310-pound nose tackle from Oceanside, Calif., transferred to EWU -- located in Cheney, about 30 miles southwest of Spokane -- in January from Palomar Junior College in San Diego, Calif.

``I'm hanging in there,'' Junior Seau said Sunday. ``I'm just trying to take care of my mom right now.''

``We are distressed at this senseless act of violence,'' EWU President Stephen Jordan said in a prepared statement.

``Our first concern, of course, is for the safety and recovery of our student, Tony Seau,'' Jordan said, ``and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.''