Three students at Delaware State University were among the victims of an execution-style shooting incident in Newark, N.J., that left three people dead and a fourth hospitalized on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

“We are deeply saddened over the violent shooting incident that took the lives of two of our students and left one seriously injured,” the university’s president, Allen L. Sessoms, said in a written statement issued on Sunday evening. “While the murder of the two students is a terrible loss in human terms, the fact that they were a part of the Delaware State University family and were striving to earn a degree, create a bright future for themselves, and become solid contributors to society, makes this violent act especially tragic and senseless.”

Dr. Sessoms added that the counseling office at the Dover, Del., institution would be available to help students on the campus who were emotionally distraught over the deaths.

The four victims were shot in the head at close range in a lot behind a school, New Jersey authorities said. The two students who died were identified as Terrance Aeriel and Deshawn Harvey. Mr. Aeriel’s 19-year-old sister, Natasha, was in fair condition at a hospital on Sunday afternoon. The fourth victim was identified as Ofemi Hightower. A spokesman for a local prosecutor’s office said that no one had been arrested in the case, and that investigators had no information on a motive. —Charles Huckabee