Australian Curtin University students shot in New Orleans, family deny drug deal allegations
A RELATIVE of one of the two Australian students shot in the heart of New Orleans has denied the incident occurred because of a drug deal gone wrong.
A YOUNG Australian captain pledged to celebrate a win in a university games tournament before he and his mate were shot in an alleged New Orleans drug deal.
Two Perth men are in a New Orleans hospital recovering from gunshot wounds and police are hunting three suspects after the Australians allegedly approached a local man looking for drugs and then revealed they couldn’t afford them, according to local police.
Police have suggested the men, aged 21 and 23, asked a stranger in a Bourbon Street bar if they could buy drugs, before getting in a car with an apparent dealer and then later saying they didn’t have the “hundreds of dollars” the dealer demanded.
The men have been identified as Jake Rovacsek and Toben Clements, who were on a university excursion to the Intercollegiate Mining Games held in Montana.
The families of the students have arrived in New Orleans and are by their bedside. Members of the Australian consulate have also arrived to support the students and their families.
Mr Clements is believed to have been shot in the chest and Mr Rovacsek in the stomach. A nurse in the intensive care unit at the New Orleans University Medical Centre, where the men are currently being treated, confirmed they were both stable.
New Orleans police would not say when contacted by news.com.au whether they had any leads on the suspects.
They also told news.com.au that they were still scrambling to locate CCTV footage.
The street corner in Algiers, near the intersection of LB Landry Avenue and Shepard Street, where the two men where shot, has at least two security cameras that are visible from the footpath.
The site of the former Fischer housing development, about 7km from the French Quarter where the students were partying, is in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in New Orleans on the West Bank of the Mississippi river and is one of the US’s most dangerous areas.
The family of one of the two shot students on Thursday denied the incident was caused by a drug deal gone wrong.
A relative told Nine News the pair accepted an invitation to continue to another party, but were instead robbed and shot.
Several people present at the time have confirmed this account, he said.
Curtin University Vice Chancellor Deborah Terry said both students were now “awake and alert” in hospital.
Mr Rovacsek spoke to university publication Butte News about his team’s win in the mining games earlier this week before the incident, saying he and the team intended to celebrate.
They’d planned trips to New Orleans, Cancun and Las Vegas — in that order — and were only starting their adventures when things turned bad.
“We’ll celebrate this,” Rovacsek said. “We’ve earned it”.
Police detailed how the men spoke with a stranger at The Swamp bar about 4am.
They then got inside a dark sedan with a second man who drove them across the Mississippi River towards the suburb of Algiers.
Algiers is one of the US’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, with high murder, crime and poverty rates, New Orleans locals have told media.
The men — who have been well enough to speak to police — told officers that during the car ride the driver demanded “several hundred dollars”.
Mr Rovacsek and Mr Clements said they didn’t have the money, according to police.
The car was then met by a third man, who allegedly asked the boys “do you know what time it is?” before shooting them.
Prof Terry said Curtin University was providing support and assistance for the injured students. Two staff members have been sent to help in New Orleans,” she said.
“The students and their families are also being supported by the Australian Consulate-General in the United States,” Prof Terry said.
“Over the past 24 hours Curtin has received many messages of concern and offers of assistance from staff and University partners, and is very appreciative of the support. The wellbeing of all our students still in New Orleans continues to be our primary focus at this time.”
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