A Louisiana State University student named Allison Rice, 21, was found shot to death in Baton Rouge early on Friday morning in September 2022. Her car was riddled with bullets, and the glass was shattered all over the roadway in a senseless act of violence that shocked the LSU community and people across the state of Louisiana. Rice was found shot to death in her car at 2:30 am on Government Street near the railroad tracks, and her car had six bullet holes in it.
Rice had been out with friends and was driving back to campus when she got stopped by a train. She tried to pull a U-turn when someone started opening fire on her vehicle and killing her in cold blood. A resident near the shooting said the gunshots were muffled by the sound of the passing train; however, they were awoken by the multiple gunshots at 2:15 am.
“The train, it sort of muffled out the shots, but you knew they were gunshots,” the resident, who remains nameless, told The Advocate.
Neighbor Floyd Normand told WWLTV said that the area of the shooting had serious problems.
“You’ve got people doing things they should not be doing, stuff like that. I’m trying to stay focused, stay out of that life, and be in my house. When night falls, I try to be in my house,” Floyd told the outlet.
Police have yet to identify a suspect or explain the possible motivation for this senseless tragedy in Louisiana.
The victim’s aunt Susie Rice Granier said the deceased was a “free spirit” who loved to sing and dance. She added, “The loss of a child, you can never get over that. The holidays are coming up. It’s going to be sad. It’s going to be really sad.”
Granier said she was in the car with her husband when they received the call that their niece had been murdered. They “just stopped at the stop sign and cried. That’s all we could do,” Granier told The Advocate.
Rice was a marketing major who planned to go into business upon graduating this year from college. Her university shared a statement following her murder: “The LSU community is saddened to hear of senior Allison Rice being killed overnight.”
Rice had recently left work at The Shed BBQ in Baton Rouge, where she worked with her two brothers. The restaurant owner, Luke Forstmann, told WAFB: “She was one of our first employees. She was always bright, smiley, and bubbly. She was a staple here. We were just talking the other day. She had an internship lined up. She had such an amazing, bright future, and everything was on the up and up, and she was about to graduate. This is so senseless and devastating.”
Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston reported that her “heart goes out to the family” of the LSU senior. She added, “This senseless violence is completely unacceptable, and Baton Rouge Police officers are thoroughly investigating to bring the perpetrator to justice.”
Meanwhile, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said he was “devastated to learn about the tragic passing of LSU senior Allison Rice, whose life was taken in a senseless act of violence.”
