ST. LOUIS — On an ordinary day, several Saint Louis University students are on the move in midtown St. Louis.
"I park down there and walk across Spring (Avenue) every day," Kellen Blum, an SLU graduate student, said.
However, just after 2 Tuesday afternoon, Blum and fellow students could not cross Spring Avenue near Lindell Boulevard because of a deadly shooting.
Police blocked off the street after they found 25-year-old Jaylen French shot to death. St. Louis paramedics rushed a 19-year-old man, a suspect in French's killing, to a hospital with critical injuries. Sources familiar with the investigation said it began as a drug deal.
SLU students were on campus for orientation week at the time of the incident.
"I think obviously it's sad for the victim and his family, but then it's something for students as well. They have to walk out of that door every day," Blum said.
Crime scene technicians took photos of an older model blue Jaguar that had its driver-side window shot out. Shattered glass, a sandal and multiple shell-casings were left in the street. The car's windshield wipers were still on when officers arrived.
The deadly shooting happened just feet away from an off-campus apartment building.
A SLU spokesman said the University's Department of Public Safety immediately notified students and the university followed safety protocol.
"I was in my apartment just cleaning up when I got the SLU alarm. They do a pretty good job of keeping students in the mix of any crime going on," Malik Stewart, a St. Louis native studying at SLU, said.
"Anybody could have been walking out here at the time. There are students who walk in and out of that off-campus, apartment building all the time and to think what could have happened, is just not a good thought," Blum added.
"It's crazy. It's sad really, but it's just kind of something, sad to say, you kind of get used to living in the city," Stewart said.
Police did say the two men were not university students. At a Wednesday afternoon briefing, police said the two men knew each other.
"We're unsure. It's so early in the investigation ... unsure of what really happened," Cot. Pierre Benoist said.
Officers questioned a woman whom they said was "a witness."