A grand jury indicted a New Orleans man on charges of negligent homicide and obstruction of justice in the shooting death of an Alabama college student last November, the New Orleans district attorneys office said.

Andrew Gant told police he accidentally shot his friend Jace Scott while they were “play fighting,” according to a news release sent Thursday, the day the indictment was handed up.

Gant was then attending Delgado Community College in New Orleans and Scott was a student at Talladega College in Alabama, according to prosecutors.

“According to statements made to New Orleans police by Gant and other witnesses, he and Scott were acquaintances who had a history of play fighting that included pointing guns at each other,” the statement said. “They did so twice on this occasion, but Gant said he was startled the second time and accidentally shot Scott in the neck.”

Scott died at the scene, in a business incubator room at Southern University-New Orleans, the news release said.
Prosecutors said Gant could get up to five years in prison if convicted of negligent homicide and up to 40 years for obstruction of justice. That charge resulted from Gant telling police he had thrown the gun into a body of water, the news release said.

It wasn’t immediately known if Gant had an attorney who could comment.