INDIANAPOLIS — Students suspended from Kipp Indy Legacy High School in the wake of the killing of their friend on a nearby parking lot Friday afternoon tell FOX59 News that a fight inside the school happened just before the murder.

”I just knew it was a fight because they put the school on lockdown, you had to stay and remain in place, so, you had to stay in the class you was in, so, I don’t know nothing about no fights or anything like that. I just know they was fighting, I don’t know who was in it, I don’t know nothing about that,” said an 11th grader who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

A 10th grader, also asking to remain anonymous, said that Devin Gilbert III, 15, was involved in the fight and told to leave the school.

”The teachers told him to get out of the building and wait for his parents,” said the teen. “I don’t know, it was like he just got shot.”

Gilbert was shot to death in the parking lot of the adjoining Edna Martin Christian Center allegedly by another 15-year-old who fled on foot and was captured several blocks away by police.

That teen is housed at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center awaiting an initial hearing and a potential waiver hearing should prosecutors decide to try him as an adult.

The two students interviewed by FOX59 News found out they were suspended Monday night, they claim, for being friends with Gilbert.

The older student read from a text message his father received last night.

”’Due to the ongoing investigation stemming from the incident that occurred at Kipp Indy Legacy on Friday November 3rd, your sons has been suspended pending investigation starting on Tuesday, November 7th. They are not permitted to return to any Kipp Indy campuses until further notification by school administrators. Upon conclusion of the investigation, consequences may be reconsidered or adjusted based on outcomes.’

”Our friend just died and the most they can do is just kick us out of school and put us under investigation for something we had nothing to do with,” said the 16-year-old.

”They suspended the whole group and said we all under investigation,” said his 15-year-old brother. “We all hang out with each other.”

Amariah Doss said she’s been unsuccessful in determining why her sons were suspended, what questions they need to answer and how they can be reinstated, let alone how they are supposed to keep up with their schoolwork.

”I did go to school this morning to ask questions to the teachers, to the principals, to the assistants, and nobody could give me the answers that I’m looking for, which is, how long will my boys be out of school? Why are they up under investigation? You apprehended the suspect. What does my boys have to do with anything and they are friends of the victim.”

An administrator at Kipp Indy Legacy told FOX59 News that parents could call the office with questions about the suspensions.

Gilbert’s friends are left to wonder how the alleged gunman knew to find his victim walking across the parking lot at the same time he should still have been inside the school.

”I don’t know,” said the older teen. “That was kind of weird. That’s what I was thinking.”