Last Friday at 4:45 am, Louisiana native Paul Rice woke up to police knocking at his door. He thought something had happened in the neighborhood, never imagining that he was about to receive the most devastating news of his life. He was later informed that his 21-year-old daughter Allison, a senior at Louisiana State University, was found shot to death inside of her car in downtown Baton Rouge hours earlier.
"We woke up to our dogs barking and the doorbell ringing," Rice told "The Story" Fox News on Monday. "Cops have shown up in the middle of the night before for various reasons, things going on in the neighborhood and all, but when they asked, ‘are you Allison’s father, can we come in, please?’ you knew at that point that it was going to be something terrible. I never could have imagined that the news would have been what it was."
Baton Rouge police officers found Rice fatally shot in her car, which was riddled with bullet holes, early Friday near railroad tracks on Government Street, the Baton Rouge Police Department confirmed to WAFB-TV. Investigators told the outlet that she may have been waiting for a train to pass when the shooting occurred. Rice, who grew up in a suburb outside Baton Rouge, was studying marketing at LSU and had just turned 21. She had an internship lined up and was due to graduate in May.
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As of Monday afternoon, Baton Rouge police have not identified a suspect or a motive. The police department told Fox News Digital over the weekend that it had no additional updates.
Rice told "The Story" that he believes his daughter's death was a case of being in "the wrong place at the wrong time."
"The only thing that I can really think at this point is it’s a bad case of wrong place at the wrong time. She’s not anyone that had enemies. We don’t think that she was being stalked or followed," he said. "That particular area of Baton Rouge has a history of this type of activity."
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While police chase down any information pertaining to Allison's death, a grieving Rice wonders how he ended up in the unimaginable position of arranging his 21-year-old daughter's funeral.
"That’s something that as a parent I should never have to plan a funeral for my child. My mother should not have to be involved in a funeral for her grandchild," he said. "This is just heartbreaking."
Rice praised the local police for working "around the clock" to find Allison's killer.
"This is being taken very seriously," he said, "….But despite that, all indications right now are there are no leads. They really don’t have an explanation at this point…as of now, [in] that particular stretch of town, they don’t have the surveillance that is necessary."
Rice was remembered by friends as a "beautiful soul" and a "ray of sunshine."
Police are asking anyone with information to contact call Baton Route Crime Stoppers at 222-344-7867
