A young woman shot outside Southside Cinema in St. David's was yesterday described as an "ideal student" and "beautiful person" by former teachers.

Renee Kuchler, 24, from Warwick, who was gunned down alongside boyfriend Shaki Minors on Friday night, was deputy head girl at CedarBridge Academy and was voted Student of Excellence for the 200? academic year.

Both Ms Kuchler, now a media communications teacher at CedarBridge, and Mr. Minors, 26, a Devonshire Cougars footballer from Pembroke, had support rolling in last night from the community.

The couple suffered gunshot wounds after blasts ran through the Southside Cinema car park after a late night showing of the movie 'Precious'.

They remain in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in stable condition with injuries believed to be non-life threatening.

Candace Webb, a former business teacher of Ms Kuchler, said last night: "This girl was an ideal student. I often times used to tell her that if my daughter grows up to be like you as a student I would be the proudest mother around.

"When I tell you this girl was an ideal student, I mean just a beautiful girl, a beautiful person."

Ms Webb, who taught Ms Kuchler business law and marketing, said she made teaching "a joy".

"She was a hard working person, a very cool personality, she didn't get upset at anything. She loved to debate. She was just there, she was a person you never had to tell twice.

"If we had an assignment, Renee had her work done. She never grumbled about anything. You never had a problem with this young lady."

Former CedarBridge teacher Karen Clemons also taught Ms Kuchler. "It just destroyed me when I heard about the shooting because it's just such a sad testament to how society is here in Bermuda," she said.

"Renee was a really great student. She was a very bright student and she was one of those students that you just looked forward to having in your classroom."

Ms Clemons added: "This is the last person you would ever expect to be a victim of this type of crime. It really makes me very sad. In her case, she's a total innocent, in the wrong place at the wrong time, which makes it all the more frightening."

Devonshire Recreational Club members voiced their support for Mr. Minors yesterday, including a Cougars teammate who wished to remain anonymous.

The player said: "We talked about it [the shooting]. We didn't go into details, but we were told that he is OK. We thought the best thing we could do was play."

Club president Craig Clarke said: "Devonshire Rec does send out their love to the families of Shaki Minors and his lady friend. It is a tragic situation and we do feel for the families.

"Hopefully, after this, people will start realising that we have to value life in this country and our young people have got to start valuing life.

"These senseless and random shootings have got to stop and it's only a good thing that nobody has actually been killed with these shootings and hopefully nobody will be killed.

"But shooting, and firing weapons, on unarmed people is cowardice. At the end of the day they can go somewhere else, take that attitude, and put it into something positive."

A Devonshire Recreation Club official, who asked to be unnamed, added: "It's terrible. It's a terrible thing. And it was probably all over nothing."