The promising future of yet another Jamaican youth has been cut short.

Diondra Morris, 21-year-old second-year student at the University of Technology (UTech), was fatally shot at the gate of her boarding facility in Papine, St. Andrew, as she made her way home with a group of friends from a fête on the university's campus early yesterday morning.

Another student also received three bullet wounds in the incident and has been hospitalised.

According to reports, the females were being escorted by three males about 3:35 yesterday morning when two men approached. The students ran and the men opened fire, killing Morris and injuring the other.

Students afraid

The incident has left students at the boarding facility shocked and afraid. The facility accommodates a number of UTech and University of the West Indies students.

"Everybody is scared, and the fact that it happened in front of the gate makes you fear that they might just come back," one female student, who did not want to be identified, told The Sunday Gleaner.

The incident has left the UTech community outraged and calling for urgent measures to ease the spate of crimes occurring across the country.

Nearly 1,500 people have been murdered so far this year, averaging some 41 murders a week since September.

According to UTech spokesman Hector Wheeler, there have been other reports of students and staff being held up in and around Papine.

"The violence has really escalated to an alarming level and we are very concerned about the welfare of our university community," he said.

UTech investigating

Wheeler disclosed that the institution was conducting its own investigations into the matter with a view to implementing new security measures to ensure the improved safety of students and staff off campus. The university, he said, also has been offering counselling to affected students and relatives.

No motive has been established for the shooting, which the Half-Way Tree Criminal Investigation Bureau has been probing.

Elsewhere on the crime scene, Lesley Morant, a 65-year-old contractor, and an executive member of the Opposition People's National Party North West St. James constituency, was gunned down at his home in Irwin, St. James, on Friday night.