That’s the looming question three days after the former National Football League player was shot dead on a New Orleans street.
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Surveillance video recorded outside a New Orleans restaurant Saturday appears to show a hit-and-run that may be connected to the fatal shooting of former New Orleans Saints player Will Smith. Police haven’t said. At least one witness has said he heard two men shouting about having guns before the shooting.
The surveillance camera from a nearby business appears to show Smith’s vehicle, which he was riding in his wife Raquel Smith, tap the bumper of Hayes’ red truck at a red light. The Hummer moves off to the side of the road, and the Mercedes drives around it, followed quickly by the Hummer.
Notes, flowers and balloons are left at a makeshift memorial Monday, April 11, 2016, near the spot where former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot and killed, and his wife wounded by gunfire, after a traffic…
Hayes, 28, was booked on second-degree murder charges and is being held on $1 million bond. But Mathieu says he can’t stay in New Orleans longer than 48 hours out of fear for his life.
“This was not some situation where my client hunted down Mr. Smith”, said Hayes’s attorney, John Fuller.
“Someone hit him, the person failed to pull over”, Fuller told reporters. “My client trailed behind this person in an effort to get this license plate number”. He says Hayes himself had been rear-ended moments earlier by a hit-and-run driver, and called 911 to describe the vehicle he was following before he ran into Smith’s Mercedes. According to police, Hayes rear-ended Smith’s vehicle which led to the confrontation between the two, but authorities are not saying whether Hayes is claiming self-defense, only that the investigation is ongoing.
The Honey Badger said he’s simply trying to educate people about “the truth of a culture that’s divided” in New Orleans, where he lived for 20 years. “I think we’ve got the shooters on the scene”. His wife was shot in the right leg. Smith was killed by bullets to the back and torso.
After the minor fender-bender, the Hummer’s driver pulled over expecting the other driver to do the same, but instead, the video shows the driver speeding away and the Hummer following in pursuit.
If toxicology tests are conducted “honestly”, Fuller said, they will “absolutely” play a key factor in his client’s case.
Smith was the Saints’ first-round pick in 2004 out of Ohio State. What role did they play – if any – in what happened Saturday night? The news would have been made public in May.
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He spoke at length about Will Smith’s death and the trouble facing the youth in New Orleans during another explosive interview with Mike Hill and Kirk Morrison on FOX Sports Radio.
