WASHINGTON — An argument near a popular Maryland movie theater has left a high school senior dead, a 19-year-old man facing murder charges and a school in mourning.

“I would see him around the hallways and he was always smiling, very focused,” said Dana Fenwick who taught 18-year-old Reuel Hicks, who died after a shooting in the parking lot behind the movie theater at St. Charles Towne Center in Waldorf, Maryland, around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Now an administrator at West Lake High School in Waldorf, Fenwick said she’ll remember the teen for his popularity and drive.

“He was a senior and recently we had talked about him going into an apprenticeship upon graduation,” she said.

Instead, Hicks died after he strayed from a group of friends to meet 19-year-old Deavan Jefferson.

“For some unknown reason, the suspect pulled out a gun and shot the victim, striking him once in the upper body,” said Diane Richardson with the Charles County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators say they believe the two were making a drug deal.

“The witnesses on the scene were able to give us a good description of suspect and based on those descriptions, our officers were immediately able to locate the suspect,” she said.

Jefferson is charged with first degree murder.