Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : College Student Dies After Fall at Campus : Accident: Libertine Oxciano, 21, loses her footing on rain-slick incline at College of the Canyons.

A woman student at College of the Canyons apparently lost her footing and fell on a rain-slick incline Tuesday, then died of head injuries, authorities reported.

Libertine Oxciano, 21, of Canyon Country, was dropped off by her brother at the community college minutes before students found her lying on the pavement next to a trash bin behind the bookstore at about 9:20 a.m., according to college officials.

Witnesses said she was still breathing and had a weak pulse, but was bleeding from the mouth and had a swollen neck.

“She was out cold,” said Angela Lindsey, 19, a student who helped provide first aid to Oxciano. “There was nothing we could do.”

“She was walking up an asphalt incline that was wet from the rain when she lost her footing and fell on the hard surface, hitting her head,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Jones.

Oxciano went into cardiac arrest when an ambulance arrived several minutes later and she was pronounced dead at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia. The cause of death had not been released Tuesday evening.

She worked as a nursing assistant at the Valencia hospital and had applied to enter the college’s nursing program next year. A nursing program administrator said Oxciano had attended the school “for some time” and had high grades.

Friends, including a 22-year-old woman who learned at about 12:30 p.m. of her classmate’s death, were stunned by the news and left in tears.

“It can’t be her,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “She was a good person. She was a loving person. She didn’t deserve to die.”

The hillside where Oxciano was found is commonly used as a shortcut by students to get from parking lots to the main campus, especially during the morning, said college spokeswoman Sue Bozman. Officials said Oxciano was wearing a backpack and carrying other schoolwork as she walked, apparently alone, up the hill.

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Jill Olmstead, 19, said she was walking up the same hill to class with a male friend when they saw a man about 20 years old over Oxciano, apparently trying to help her. Olmstead said Oxciano was lying with her arms at her side, her glasses were broken, and her backpack and clothing appeared undisturbed.

Several other students stopped, some helping remove Oxciano’s backpack and turning her head so she could breathe, Olmstead said.

Campus security officers and sheriff’s deputies sealed the area for several hours to allow homicide investigators to inspect the scene, but the death was officially classified as an accident late Tuesday afternoon, Jones said.