Police Hunt Killer Who Gunned Down Hero College Student

Police in New Jersey are searching for the gunman who opened fire at an off-campus party near Seton Hall University, killing an honors student who tried to help a wounded friend.

Four people were wounded in the shootings early Saturday. Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and the school is making counselors available on campus today.

"It's very much an active investigation," East Orange Police Sgt. Andrew DiElmo told AOL News today. "There are no suspects or arrests."

The gunman reportedly was turned away from the party in East Orange, about a mile from campus, but returned and opened fire, reportedly shooting people at random. As the shots rang out, the 100 party-goers scrambled to get out of the chaotic scene inside the row house.

Jessica Moore, 19, of Disputanta, Va., was gunned down moments after going to help one of her friends who was shot in the jaw, a witness told The New York Times.

"Everyone was running out; everyone was watching out for themselves," Jessica Townsend, 19, told the newspaper. "She said, 'I'm going to protect Nakeisha.'"

Nakeisha Vanterpool, a 19-year-old sophomore from the Bronx, was also shot in the arm.

"Jess was an amazing person -- the type who loved everyone, even if she only knew you for two minutes," Vanterpool told The Star-Ledger of Newark by e-mail. "She is more than my friend -- she is my sister."

Also wounded were another 19-year-old female student at the school, a man who attends New Jersey Institute of Technology and a man from New York who is not a student, The Associated Press said.

"It's every parent's nightmare," Vanterpool's father, Leslie Vanterpool, told the New York Daily News. "No parent should have to wake up to hear your kid is shot while attending college."

An unidentified survivor who was on the floor spoke of having the gunman step on her back as he fired randomly. The woman, a 19-year-old sophomore, was left with a bruise in the shape of a shoe print on her back, The Star-Ledger reported.

"I was literally the floor for the shooter -- he was standing on me," she told the newspaper. "When the gunshots stopped, all I saw was blood and Jess lying there."

One of the shooting victims, Xavier Lee, 21, had his left toe grazed by a bullet, fracturing a bone.

"I felt the sharp pain in my foot, so I knew I was hit," Lee told WABC-TV. "I'm hearing all these gunshots, and people screaming and everything."

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"It was one of the worst things I've ever seen," Lee told the station. "You know, people were climbing over each other trying to get out. People were getting knocked over. It was the worst."

After the gunman fled, police were interviewing witnesses.

"They're following up on some leads," DiElmo told The Star-Ledger. "There were 50-plus people at that party. So, there's a lot of people they're still tracking down who fled. ... It was mayhem."

About 500 of Moore's fellow students, friends and teachers gathered Saturday night for a prayer service. Hours after she was slain, Moore, a psychology major, was remembered as strong and selfless, The Associated Press reported.

"She had a magnetic personality," friend Christian Powe told AP after the service.

He and Moore became "real tight" after taking a rhetoric class together. He told AP she's a person "you can really open up to."

Students wrote tributes to Moore on a bulletin board at a dorm, and an electronic sign near the student center said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected," the Times said.

The party was mostly for students from Seton Hall, a 10,000-student Roman Catholic university in South Orange, a suburb about 15 miles from New York City and a separate jurisdiction from the town where the shooting took place.

While the home where the party was held was on a street of well-kept houses, a major cross street leads to a rougher area. The university urges students going off campus to walk in groups.

The university's website lists 27 Greek organization but unofficial fraternities have been linked to the university, the Times reported. One came to light when two students were charged with assault in a 2005 hazing-related case, the paper said.

A dorm fire in 2000 killed three students and injured 58. It was started by two students who had been drinking.