New Orleans police say that a 20-year-old man shot his friend before killing himself after a three-hour standoff with police inside a hotel in the French Quarter on Sunday.

According to a police report, four friends from the Lafayette area were staying together for the weekend at The Westin on Canal Street on the edge of the French Quarter.

Three of the friends went partying in the Quarter on Saturday and returned back to the hotel room around 6 a.m. Sunday.

That's when the fourth person said that he was awakened because he heard his friend shouting "put the gun down."

The 23-year-old said he then saw the shooter, who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, pointing a black pistol toward the 24-year-old victim, said NOPD spokesman Officer Frank Robertson III, according to the New York Daily News.

The shooter eventually shot his friend in the chest, and the witness and another 24-year-old friend ran out of the room.

When police arrived on scene, they attempted to enter the room but turned back when the shooter aimed his weapon at them, Robertson said.

After the officers backed out, they called for a SWAT team, or the Special Operations Negotiation Team, which was deployed to the location. Members or the SWAT team attempted to communicate with the shooter for nearly three hours before they heard another gun shot.

"The SWAT team then entered the room around 9:30 a.m., finding the shooter unresponsive. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office pronounced him dead on the scene at 9:54 a.m," reported The Times-Picayune..

The shooting victim was taken to a hospital and was said to be in stable condition by Sunday evening.

The identities of the men have not been revealed.