NEW ORLEANS - A Southern University student and an aspiring nurse who was set to graduate from Nunez Community College were killed in a shooting reported outside a New Orleans hookah bar early Friday morning. 

The shooting happened on North Claiborne Avenue around 1:30 a.m. Friday. The victims were identified as Imani Williams and JaDiamond Jones. Williams was a student at Southern University who had just celebrated her 20th birthday, and Jones, also 20, was just days from earning her diploma at Nunez.

Police reportedly found the pair shot by an overpass near the bar. Both women died in a hospital Friday, according to WWL-TV. 

Southern University President-Chancellor Dennis J. Shields offered his condolences to Williams's family in a statement Saturday saying "This student, like others who are taken away because of senseless acts of violence, will never get to graduate and fulfill her dreams."

Police are still trying to develop a possible motive and suspects in the shooting.