The discovery of a handgun inside Will Smith’s vehicle raised new questions about just what happened Saturday night when the former New Orleans Saints defensive end was shot to death.
New Orleans police detectives found a fully loaded 9mm handgun inside Smith’s Mercedes G63 SUV on Tuesday morning when they served search warrants on the vehicle, police said.
Investigators also found a fully loaded revolver inside the Hummer H2 driven by Cardell Hayes, the man accused of fatally shooting Smith and wounding Smith’s wife on Saturday night.
After the shooting, police confiscated one gun at the scene: the .45-caliber handgun they say Hayes used to shoot Smith and his wife. Hayes is charged with second-degree murder.
Police haven’t said who owned the additional guns found on Tuesday. In addition to Smith and his wife, Racquel, there were another male and female in his vehicle. There was also a male passenger in Hayes’ Hummer.
“No bullet casings were found inside either vehicle, and no ballistic evidence was recovered to show that either weapon was fired during the incident,” police said.
But did those weapons play any role in what unfolded Saturday night? Police haven’t said. At least one witness has said he heard two men shouting about having guns before the shooting.
The fact that Smith himself had a gun that night raises the possibly that Hayes’ lawyers may employ a “stand your ground” defense.
Under Louisiana state law, people who aren’t breaking the law “have no duty to retreat before using deadly force … and may stand his or her ground and meet force with force.”
Surveillance footage emerges
Besides the discovery of the two guns, other clues have emerged in the high-profile case.
Surveillance footage shows a Mercedes SUV, like the one driven by Smith, possibly hitting a Hummer, like the one driven by Hayes, a short distance away and moments before the shooting.
Footage revealed by CNN affiliate WVUE and another surveillance video obtained by CNN show the Mercedes trailing the Hummer, until the Hummer stops abruptly. The Mercedes pulls up quickly, too, possibly hitting it from behind. Both vehicles are a standstill briefly, until the Hummer starts to pull over; the Mercedes, though, goes around and drives off.
Off camera and a short time later, there was another incident. This time, Hayes’ Hummer rear-ended Smith’s Mercedes SUV. The impact caused Smith’s vehicle to bump the rear of a Chevrolet Impala with two of Smith’s friends inside, police said.
Hayes didn’t drive off.
And Smith ended up dead.
‘Six gunshot wounds to the chest’
Hayes’ lawyer insists his client wasn’t the aggressor, but the victim of a hit-and-run.
“Someone hit him, the person failed to pull over,” attorney John Fuller told reporters. “My client trailed behind this person in an effort to get this license plate number. My client also called 911.”
Fuller didn’t specify whether Smith — who not long before had been enjoying a fun night out with his wife and friends — was the one who rear-ended his client.
Police say the two men did exchange words, after which shots were fired. One person called 911 to report, according to dispatch audio, “there’s a male down with about six gunshot wounds to the chest.” That referred to Smith. His wife was shot once in the right leg.
Police arrived four minutes later.
They found Smith’s body “in the middle of the street, partially inside of his vehicle, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the body,” the police report said. “He died at the scene.”
Hayes was still there. That he didn’t leave — and, moreover, that he’d secured a witness who was heading out — is telling, according to his lawyer.
“Now, tell me if that’s the behavior that’s consistent with someone who’s an animal out here looking for blood,” Fuller said. “His actions are totally consistent with someone that is complying with a police investigation.”
Police didn’t explain why it took three days to find the guns in the vehicles.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison initially said that police had “only confiscated one firearm from the scene” — the one “that we believe was used in the shooting.”
When pressed as to whether there might have been other weapons at the scene, Harrison said Sunday that investigators were still trying to answer that kind of questions.
In remarks to news media earlier this week, Hayes’ lawyer hinted that his client wasn’t the only with a gun. In a video obtained by CNN, a witness said someone else at the scene claimed to have a weapon before the shooting.
“We have reason to believe that there may have been a second gun on the scene,” said Fuller, the suspect’s lawyer. “And there definitely were allusions to a second gun.”
Anger, sadness in New Orleans
Pierre Thomas, a longtime Saints running back now with the Washington Redskins, sounded off Tuesday for the first time about an incident he was “still trying to wrap my head around.”
Thomas said in an Instagram post that he “witnessed a close friend, teammate and a man that I thought of as one of my big brothers in the NFL shot to death OVER A … FENDER BENDER!!!!”
“Why!? I just don’t get it,” Thomas added, before blasting what he called “so much senseless killing going on in our world.” “These images that I have in my head will never leave me.”
The place where Smith’s bloody body lay, near the intersection of Sophie Wright Place and Felicity Street, has gone from crime scene to memorial.
There are balloons, flowers and other remembrances. One is a shirt from Smith’s alma mater, Ohio State University. Many more items speak to his nine seasons with the Saints, during which time he helped the franchise win its first Super Bowl. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2006 and, the Saints announced Sunday (a month ahead of schedule), recently had been unanimously picked to join the football team’s Hall of Fame.
Smith’s casket will be at the team’s practice facility on Friday for public viewing.
Gun violence is not new to New Orleans. It’s something that Smith himself took note of a few years ago after a stretch of 20 killings in 26 days in the city.
“Please Stop the Violence!” he tweeted.
That same message is among the signs on what’s now Smith’s memorial. And it’s been echoed by his longtime coach, Sean Payton, who called it “madness” that “everyone needs a gun.”
“I hate guns,” the Saints head coach told USA Today. “I find myself leaning to the right on some issues. But on this issue, I can’t wrap my brain around it.”
His feelings were heightened by his personal relationship with Smith, who was his defensive captain as a longtime locker room leader. The fact that his three children, William, Lisa Mya and Wynter Chase, will now grow up without a father makes it even sadder, his friends said.
“Mourning the loss of a great friend and teammate, Will Smith,” tweeted New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who like Smith was part of the post-Katrina squad that went on to win Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. “Such a senseless tragedy.”
That view was echoed by Nikole Jessie, who used to live down the street from where Smith was shot. That’s how New Orleans is, she says: One moment people are out having fun and then, “boom, someone gets shot over nothing.”
“It’s really, really sad,” Jessie told CNN near the memorial site. “You know the Saints are such a part of this city.”
‘Tragic at every level’
No doubt, the stature of Smith and the Saints has focused the region’s attention on his killing, more than other homicides in New Orleans over the years.
But Fuller, the lawyer representing Hayes, urged people — even if they care passionately about this case — not to jump to conclusions.
“Whether the victim is famous, infamous, popular, unpopular, black, white, Catholic, Baptist, the law applies equally to everyone,” he said. “If the law is applied fairly in this case, I think the results are going to surprise a lot of folks.”
Fuller hinted that toxicology tests, results of which should come back in about six weeks, will “absolutely” be key to his client’s case.
Whatever police learn in their probe, New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison called the incident a sad one for his city and those involved.
“While this was an isolated incident, it is certainly tragic at every level and on all sides,” the superintendent said. “One life is over, and another life is ruined.
“Make no mistake about it: We absolutely don’t tolerate this type of behavior on the streets of New Orleans.”