Allie Rice’s murderers remain at large

A decade ago, I served as Director of Development at a Baton Rouge tech company developing software for law enforcement and emergency responders. As our teams grew, I interviewed and hired Angela Engler, an intelligent quality assurance engineer with a delightful sense of humor.

If you read this column regularly, you are waiting for the other shoe to drop. However, I’m happy to report Angela Engler is alive and well. Unfortunately, though, her equally intelligent and beautiful daughter is no longer with us.

When I met Angela, her surname was not Engler but Rice.

Angela’s daughter, Allison Rice, was also described by co-workers as having a delightful sense of humor. That was before someone unloaded a handgun into her car at a train crossing in Baton Rouge last September.

Five months later, police have no leads or suspects in the case.

Wednesday night, January 17, the Krewe of Spanish Town announced that, with the family’s blessing, one of Baton Rouge’s biggest and most popular events would honor Allie’s memory. In next month’s Mardi Gras parade, some floats will display her photograph to call awareness to this senseless crime and encourage parade-goers to step forward with information.

Allie’s father, Paul Rice, told WBRZ Wednesday afternoon that Allie’s family is hopeful this could lead them to some level of closure.

“We are hoping that the continued exposure of Allie’s photo and the [$50,000] reward serves as a reminder of how important it is that we as a community speak up and not protect those out there doing harm.”

For Paul, the horror began when uniformed officers knocked on his door at 4:45 on the morning of September 16, 2022.

“They kept mentioning Allie’s name,” Paul told People magazine. “Finally, I asked, ‘Well, is Allie okay?’ And that’s when the policeman said, ‘No sir, she’s with the coroner right now. She didn’t make it.’”

Allison Rice, a 21-year-old senior and marketing major at LSU, worked part-time at The Shed BBQ near the campus. Around 2:19 that morning, driving home to her apartment, Allie stopped her silver SUV at a train crossing in the 1500 block of Government Street. Soon after, to avoid the train or escape an attacker, she seemingly attempted to make a U-turn before someone shot her multiple times in the chest.

A witness to the attack described the scene to Journalist Kiran Chawla:

“I was bringing a friend home. When we got [to the tracks] on Government, the train was at a complete stop. Then two guys walked past my car. One of them was wearing dark clothes with long sleeves. [The other wore] a red hoodie over his head. They were both black males, mid 20’s, and both around 5’10 or 5’11.”

“At this time, [Allie’s] vehicle pulled up. I was going away from downtown (driving East) on Government, and [Allie] was coming towards downtown (driving West) when the two guys walked past my vehicle. The train was at a complete stop. They were walking through the train’s cars to get across the tracks. Then, not ten minutes later, I heard the gunshots.”

“I heard multiple gunshots, at least five to six or more, and after that, I could still see her car parked. As soon as the gunshots [started], she tried to turn around but stopped. I could not tell where the shots were coming from, but I knew they were very close, so I began backing out to leave.”

“The next morning, I saw (on the news) that someone had been found dead by the tracks. That’s when I [recognized Allie’s SUV as] the car I saw.”

Baton Rouge Police suspect the atrocity was a random, failed carjacking attempt.

One week after the murder and one day after Allie’s funeral—attended by 500 mourners—the commander of BRPD’s violent crime unit, Lt. Kevin Heinz, dismissed reports of gang involvement.

“There’s a lot of things we’re looking at that I’m not going to go over right now. I understand there’s a rumor that [the murder] was some kind of gang initiation. We have zero indication that that is the case,” he said.

However, with a dozen gangs reported active in Baton Rouge—some allegedly linked to a Texas-based drug cartel—the gang initiation theory, originating among Allie’s student brethren at LSU, seems more plausible than BRPD’s idea of random carjacking.

According to witnesses, police found the driver’s side window and front windshield blown out and bullet holes in both doors. A carjacker firing a dozen times, hitting both sides of a car he plans to steal, seems unlikely. Furthermore, highwaymen rarely shoot drivers multiple times in the chest and arms, shattering all glass from a vehicle they plan to steal.

In that September news conference, Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome told reporters, “Over the last two weeks, it’s obvious that we’ve seen an influx of incidents.” First, she briefly referenced the murder of Allie Rice and others. Then, she hinted at what sounded like a gang accusation, saying, “We cannot turn a blind eye to continuous offenses by the same groups of individuals.”

Chief Murphy Paul urged anyone with information to come forward, telling reporters that the Baton Rouge Police Department took these incidents seriously. In addition, he said, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were assisting in the investigation.

Allie Rice’s murder marked the 74th in the East Baton Rouge Parish in 2022 and followed a string of crimes against LSU students. Someone shot another student in an August 19 robbery attempt, and police investigated two separate kidnapping cases on campus within days of the attack.

Mayor Broome said she is coordinating with LSU officials to discuss safety for all college students in Baton Rouge. The University awarded Allie’s degree posthumously and, in a news release, encouraged her classmates to seek grief counseling.