A 17-year-old Fairfield High Preparatory School sophomore was gunned down outside his best friend's home Wednesday morning as the two prepared to walk to school.

The shooting happened sometime around 8:20 a.m. in the 800 block of Valley Road, said Fairfield police Chief Nick Dyer. Neighbors heard two shots and a car pull off.

When the gunfire was over, Tyron Bennett collapsed on his back on the walkway in front of his friend's house. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

"You won't find anything negative to say about him," said Belle Gulley, who lived in the house between Bennett and his friend. "He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word."

Bennett was the oldest of four siblings who lived with their mother on Valley Road. Each morning, he would walk to his friend's house two doors down to get his best friend and they stop back by his own house to pick up his sister. The three would then continue on to school.

Neighbors said Bennett was a rare young man for his age. He cut grass, raked lawns, washed cars and ran errands for the elderly. He also had a job sweeping at the local barber shop.

"He was an upcoming entrepreneur,'' said the Rev. LaJuan Lewis of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church and a family friend. "He swept the floors at the barber shop to make money. He didn't get out in these streets and sell drugs to make money. He did it the right way. I respected him, and so did many others in the community."

As of about 10:45 a.m., the police chief said detectives were interviewing two witnesses, and possibly a third witness who may have seen Bennett at the time of the shooting. No arrests have been made, but the investigation is active, he said.

Fairfield schools' Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said all five of the city's schools were immediately placed on lockdown. "When we heard the ambulance and firetrucks, we knew there was a situation,'' Gonsoulin said.

Classes have resumed, but Gonsoulin said the perimeter doors remain locked as a precaution.

Gonsoulin said Bennett had no discipline issues at school and made above-average grades. "He was a hard-working student, a good kid,'' he said. "We don't know if it is associated with school because they don't know what happened yet. It's just so sad this happened."

School officials immediately made counselors available for staff and students at the high school, as well as the nearby elementary school.

He said the killing is disheartening. "We want to always make sure our children are safe, whether it's in school or out of school. They're our children, and we're concerned about their safety,'' he said. "We're going to hope that our officials can find out exactly what happened, and bring justice to this matter."

Dozens of friends and family gathered at the scene Wednesday morning. Bennett's mother said she was too distraught to talk about her son at that moment. The mother of Bennett's best friend said he was taken away from the scene by his uncle, and that he was obviously shaken.

Many of those outside the home circled in prayer as Bennett's body was removed from the scene. "As Christians, that's what we do - pray,'' Lewis said. "I've known him since he was a 7 or 8-year-old kid."

Neighbors said the deadly shooting was a shock, and they decried the violence around them. "It's too easy for them to have guns,'' Gulley said.

Lewis agreed. "As a man of color, as a black man, we oftentimes talk about what the white man does to us but listen to me, my brothers and sisters, we have to start with ourselves,'' he said. "We have to take back what the devil has taken away from us and that's raising our children. We have to stop letting the streets raise our children. Every other race sticks together except us, except the black race."

The shooting death is Fairfield's first homicide of the year, and the fifth in all of Jefferson County.