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Will Smith (courtesy abcnews.com)

“Former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot to death in New Orleans’s Lower Garden District on Saturday night, following a traffic collision, the city’s Coroner’s Office has confirmed to ABC. A police report says Smith’s Mercedes G63 SUV was rear-ended by a Hummer H2 while driving with his wife. The driver of the Hummer and Smith ‘exchanged words at which time the driver of the Hummer produced a handgun’ and shot Smith ‘multiple times and his 34-year-old wife twice in the right leg.’ Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife was transported to a local hospital.” I think it needs to be said that . . .

“exchanging words” with an enraged driver by the side of the road is a really bad idea. Not to automotively profile, but that goes double if the driver’s piloting a HUMMER or enormous pickup or anything in the tire-wearing testosterone projection department.

Like an AMG G63? Yes, well, Mr. Smith obviously liked to live large — as is his right. But there is something to be said for not doing so, self-defense-wise. Walk softly and carry a big SIG? Something like that.

Meanwhile, Smith’s killer was arrested, his gun recovered and charges filed. Note: it is possible the HUMMER driver shot Smith in self-defense. Watch this space.

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89 COMMENTS

  1. Further proof to me all Hummer drivers are tools. /sarc

    In all seriousness, what good has ever come from escalating a situation by exchanging heated words?

      • It is unlikely that the Hummer driver intentionally shot the wife. If you think about a guy at a driver’s side window shooting into it and the angle for a bullet to travel down and hit a passenger in the right leg… Unless more info comes out, I’ll be assuming she was hit by errant bullets not intended for her.

        • How could you say he didn’t intend to shoot the wife? She was in the car, smith was leaving the hummer going back to his car when shot multiple times IN THE BACK !!! That makes it a deliberate shooting.

    • Hummers are military grade vehicles and should be banned from use by private citizens. Only highly qualified government trained individuals should be allowed to own a Hummer. If the driver had been driving a less dangerous vehicle this wouldn’t have happend……

      Seriously, it is sad that someone died over a traffic accident. Although, there is always more to the story than it first appears.

      • Ow, ow, ow! That’s me removing the hook, line AND sinker I swallowed when I read the first half of your reply, Joel. Now I’m laughing at both the reply and my gullibility this morning.

      • How many lives must be lost before we say enough is enough and take some common sense action? No one needs a Hummer to go grocery shopping. Lobby your representative for a ban on all vehicles with more that 6 inches of ground clearance and a ban on any vehicle with 2 or more of the following features:
        1. flared fenders
        2. rectangular side windows with a width greater than their height
        3. a grill guard
        4. running boards
        5. a tailgate

        • You laugh, but as a motorcyclist I would make it illegal to raise or lower your bumper/headlight height in a second.

        • Aw, crap. That takes my little Mazda pickup right out. Running boards (not that it’s lifted to where you’d need them as a step up, but they’re handy when you need to scrape mud and snow off your feet), artfully flared fenders, and (gasp!) one of those tail-things-that-go-up.

      • Actually only the original Hummer is a military grade vehicle. The H2 and all models thereafter are much more practical for civilian use and don’t have the same off road capability. Now with that being said most Hummer owners are just one level of douche bag below BMW owners.

  2. His size and strength makes capability and disparity of force nearly automatic in any confrontation. Proximity seems a given here. Intent is the open question. Except for the wife, that will eff his defense case considerably unless she had a weapon.

    • If he can afford a Hummer, he can afford a good lawyer who will say the wife was hit in the leg as he was shooting at Smith on self defense. The lawyer will make the case that he felt attacked by Smith’s vehicle and that he feared for his life due to the Smith’s size. He will get off.

        • Saw a guy once get his car in front of another guys, stop, throw it in revervse and gun it. Slammed into the other guys car and then jumped out to confront the other guy. On a CA freeway during commute time.

          Must have been something happened earlier that fueld his rage.

        • I hate to paraphrase the hilldabeast but “does it really matter?”

          Who is at fault in the accident is no sure sign of who is at fault in the following confrontation. People get enraged for stupid reasons and misdirect that rage all the time.

      • Self defense is going to be a stretch in this case. Other news is reporting that the exchange of words happened behind the car but smith was shot dead while sitting behind the wheel of his car. Aggression is hard to prove when the victim was in a sitting position without a weapon.

        • If that was the case and Smith was back in his car when he was shot then I hope the shooter gets everything the prosecutor can throw at him and make stick, except “carrying an illegal weapon”.

  3. The shooter was one Cardell Hayes, 28. A quick check of the Orleans Parish court records shows a 2010 arrest for illegal weapons possession.

    • Big deal. I was arrested in California years ago for “illegal weapons possession” (a misdemeanor). The city attorney decided not to press charges and returned my Ruger, without the 15 rounds of Black Talon I had on board.

      Being busted under an unconstitutional law is annoying and potentially expensive, but that in itself does not make you a bad guy. Now that I am older and much more conservative I shudder to think of the amount of time I have spent in public under “illegal weapons possession”.

      • Yep. CA cop had me unload and then released me and my gun to go home. Having clogged courts and being an ofwg has its benefits.

      • Twice on cocealed carry, lost one gun, a derringer, the other one I got back. That was back when cocealed carry permits were immpossible to get. I argued 2A to no avail.

    • According to SB Nation he also had drug paraphilia in the prior arrest. So other drug selling thug using guns illegally…..it is a shame that the emotive Hoplophobs don’t look at the real reasons behind these senseless murders. I wish the best to Mrs. Smith for a speedy recovery.

  4. There is no point whatsoever in anyone getting killed over some bent metal and broken plastic, or someone changing lanes without a signal.

  5. It will be interesting to see all the facts when they finally come out, because this could easily go both ways. Certainly, if a giant NFL player turns aggressive, you have disparity of force. The wife getting shot could easily be accidental where there is a struggle. But on the other side, what did the shooter do? He could have started the argument or worse. If the shooter did the right thing by requesting a lawyer, we wont know his side of the story until it goes to court. Until then, the media is going to make it up.

  6. All things considered, and I am also a big man, although not an aggressive personality, if I accidentally rear-end some big aggressive guy who then wants to come back and have any words with me other than “Show me your license and give me your insurance information” I am very likely to keep my mouth shut and let my SR9c talk for me.

    Unless this guy intentionally rammed the Mercedes and then escalated the argument when called on it I’m going with “justified” whether the State of Louisiana thinks he may legally exercise his Second Amendment protected right to keep and bear arms or not. If the wife’s wounds were accidental collateral damage, that is.

    Too many variables, no video. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the trial turns out.

    • Cliff-

      You realize when you post online your comments are viewable to the entire world?

      So you screwed up and rear ended someone and instead of letting them vent their frustrations you’d rather ventilate them full of holes with your SR9c? Way to be the bigger man…

      Thanks for giving more ammo to the anti gunners out there. Now we all get labeled as blood thirsty, thanks…

      My god…I hope I’m never accidentally in any kind accident with you. I’d hate to be shot while I raised my voice to trade insurance information with you. Or shot while I begin to apologize…

      I had a guy follow me into work once because he didn’t understand what to do when his lane ended. I gave him plenty of space to merge and everything, but somehow it was still my “fault.” That was fun seeing him follow me into the parking lot at work. I stopped by the main gate and just let him yell for a while, our parking lots are open to the public. We eventually shaked hands and went on our separate ways. No guns or physical altercations occurred. And neither one of our ego’s were bruised.

      So how about you not resorting to the gun Cliff until you actually figure out what’s going on. The real world isn’t the movies. It’s okay if the other guy/gal is pissed. You just smashed up their vehicle, probably hurt his wife, kid or mother as well.

      Last I checked prison is still pretty bad. And if you really are afraid of your life, why get out of the car in the first place? The police will be there shortly. Now, yeah if they’re breaking down your windows or acting in a threating manner and have a means to act on it, that’s a different story. But given the situation they have every right to be mad at you because you are the one who messed up, be a man and take it. Them yelling and cussing you out might hurt your ego but it beats prison time.

      And you mean to tell me any slightly hairy situation you might get involved will turn into pulling out your gun and letting your gun do the talking? You sound like all those punk kids we keep making fun of because of how ridiculous they act, dress and sound.

      • Cliff H can speak for himself, but you’re stretching the meaning of what he wrote.

        My take:
        let my SR9c talk for me. != start shooting.
        However:
        let my SR9c talk for me. = display SR9c for deterrence.

        A prosecutor who thinks like you may consider just being a member of this site as a reason to nullify a self defense claim.

      • So you screwed up and rear ended someone and instead of letting them vent their frustrations you’d rather ventilate them full of holes with your SR9c? Way to be the bigger man…

        Depends on what “vent their frustrations” really means. If it includes assault – then Swiss cheese it is.

      • So what do you plan to do when it’s more than licence and insurance? A bit of friendly chitchat? Kneel down and cry for mercy? Or what?

      • For the record – I am a big man, 6’3″ and @ 285 pounds. Last November I was rear-ended by a drunk while at a stop light. I got out of the car and walked back, irate, and demanded his information. I did not yell or argue or intimidate. The punk bastard pretended to get his info from the glove box, then drove away while I was distracted. I did not threaten him. I did not get in my car and chase him all over Las Vegas. I did NOT shoot at him.

        My point above, and my ONLY point, is that if some big, irate, belligerent guy jumps out of his car after I accidentally bump his rear and wants to get in my face rather than exchange insurance information he is most definitely going to see my EDC. I may or may not shoot (at) him, that will be his choice, but I am not going to get a beat-down just for bending someone’s car. Not gonna happen.

        It remains to be determined the actual circumstances of this accident and why the shooter determined that it was necessary/appropriate to shoot him, or his wife. My other point I was trying to make, before you made the comment all about me and not the situation itself, was that regardless of any past arrest or other official record the guy had the same natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to carry arms for self-defense as everyone else and any law to the contrary is unconstitutional. IMO. How he in fact chose to use that weapon may well turn out to be illegal, but the weapon itself was not.

        • Agree with what you said. True, not going to get beat to death or killed by someone. But sometimes you just gotta let folks yell/vent for a while and/or let emotions calm down a little. Yup, at the end of the day it’s their decision to escalate things and how events unfold, they don’t need any help. It will be their choice as you say. It is rather interesting how angry folks act when you remain absolutely calm and do not feed into them.

          Sorry if it appears I gave you a hard time there. We all know pulling out your firearm means you intend to use it, not show it off. I just hate antis thinking we just brandish our pieces to try to scare the other guy or we’ll just automatically grab for the gun without trying to calm things down, without thinking or if we perceive things getting a bit awkward.

          In regards to some other folks comments. Darn skippy, I’d rather want the two of us walking away after shaking hands versus one of us being wheeled away in a body bag! No matter what though, I’ll still be standing upright with my boots on. But good luck living with that fantasy of whoever made mention of being on their knees. I’ll be somewhere else with the old lady enjoying life.

          I could care less about a bruised ego if it allows me to see tomorrow. Even though I can’t remember an argument I didn’t at least partially win. Plus, besides my family and friends I really have nothing else I’m willing to fight and die over. This is also why I have insurance, everything I own can be replaced or fixed.

          Cliff, you get the guys license plate who rear ended you? Suppose it doesn’t matter, bet the a*shole didn’t have insurance and couldn’t pay to fix any damages anyways.

          Will be interesting to see how events turn out, I see TTAG isn’t updating this post. Video was just released of the Merc rear ending the Hummer and the Merc speeding off and the Hummer apparently in pursuit.

  7. I had someone try to force my vehicle off the road while driving a little japanese sedan. Automotive profiling is much less effective than angry jackass profiling. Only reason everyone is alive is my driving away while on the phone with the cops. I placed another call after waiting a few minutes to verify the presence of police for the safety of my family from the crazed man who tried and failed to kill us and then verbally threatened to finish the job as we drove away. Turns out I inadvertantly found myself in the middle of a rolling domestic. Keep your head on a swivel and don’t go looking for trouble. Getting home safe should be our first priority, bravado be damned

    • ” Turns out I inadvertantly found myself in the middle of a rolling domestic. ”

      You never can know exactly what’s going on… another day it might be an escaped mental patient that hits you. Someone getting ragey over it might be ‘right’ but they may end up dead anyway.

  8. Looks like the perp is 6’6″ and rear-ended Smith according to the story on The Advocate. He is going to jail, on second thought

  9. “but that goes double if the driver’s piloting a HUMMER or enormous pickup or anything in the tire-wearing testosterone projection department.”

    Well, seeing as how you are a Jew, you must drive small expensive euro trash car and are easily intimidated by real Murican men in big trucks. Just like your AR is an overcompensation for your tiny Jewish penis. Hmm… Steryotypes hurt don’t they?

    • Excuse me Doctor, but Mr. Farrago, although Jewish, formerly ran the bog The Truth About Cars. He has undoubtedly driven and reviewed “tire-wearing testosterone projectors” the likes of which most men can only dream of and few men can actually afford. Jewish or not, I think he knows whereof he speaks when discussing cars and the type of people who generally own them.

      And I do not recall, although he may have mentioned at some point, what RF drives right now, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t afford it and it wasn’t made in Asia.

      • As someone who makes his living in the construction industry I’d have to take exception to you inclusion of ‘enormous pickup’.

        • Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: For the experiment to be a success, all of the body parts must be enlarged.

          Inga: His veins, his feet, his hands, his organs vould all have to be increased in size.

          Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Exactly.

          Inga: He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker.

          Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That goes without saying.

          Inga: Voof.

      • Exactly. I seem to recall the good “Doctor” was the one who brought “Jew” into the conversation.

        I believe if we want to stereotype we could probably presume Dr. Brainwash is a Troll.

    • What’s wrong with Steryotyping?

      Norms come as norms for a reason. Not enough to be totally conclusive, but wont hurt for reference purposes

      This comes from somebody that never drove anything but small expensive euro trash cars. And as a frequent Liveleaker I have a bazillian reasons to drive them so i dont have a rollover just because of a bit of side wind, a small bump from the rear, a tiny pothole, or a fumble at the steering wheel

      • See, I could say, “No, you drive that because you’re gay.” And be stereotyping. So you’re fine with that?

        • I’d just brush it off. If mere being stereotyped offends me i’d lost count how many people i killed for patronizing my competitors in business instead of me. And since when is gay and euro cars related? Never heard of it as a wide, generalized stereotype. Maybe different neighborhood and different people we meet at work and life?

          Even those gays exist for a biological reason, though, and not a too bad one at that

        • Putting words in my mouth

          Since when did i say stereotyping has no basis?

          Stereotyping is correlation

          It’s not right at predicting causation 100% of time, but i never said it’s useless

          I never heard of euro car drivers being generally gay

          But I’ve heard and seen plenty of pushtards driving giant pickup and SUVs when their maximum tow capacity required is a flatscreen tv once per 5 years and the only offroad they do is parking across the curb. And guess how they come by as road ragers?

          Merely because a stereotyping is nonexistent, it doesnt make other stereotyping any less valid. Merely because temporary cavity damage doesnt exist with 22LR, it doesnt make the temporary cavity any less effective when it’s a 50BMG

        • If members of Crowd A have a 20% likelihood of being a murderer while those from Crowd B have a 10% likelihood, all else being equal, would you accomodate a guy from Crowd A or B in your house? Is choosing B discrimination or proper precaution?

        • Stereotypes exist for a reason – they are helpful in profiling people you are not familiar with up until the time you can more closely evaluate them and their behavior. It is a valuable survival tool so long as it does not lead to outright bigotry, which is refusing to evaluate past the stereotype.

          As a long time truck driver with well over a million road miles I can tell you from experience that a large number of people who buy and drive Subarus are TERRIBLE drivers. I do not know why that is the case, but being aware of it has saved my butt on more than one occasion, and possibly theirs as well.

          And in the more than 24,000 hours I have spent behind the wheel on the road I have to say that I have no reason to stereotype anyone due to their ethnicity. Behavior based on the type/make of vehicle – absolutely valid. Steer clear of Subarus, most mini vans, and be very careful around Volkswagons. “Drivers Wanted!” they said – they’re still looking.

  10. We had a B.S. road rage incident in Houston on Friday morning, on a stretch of road I’d passed through about 30 minutes earlier. Two women drivers, both in their 20s, sparked some kind of conflict between each other, without collision. One then threw a water bottle at the other’s car, then exited her own vehicle and approached that other vehicle.

    The driver in that other vehicle, “fearing for her life”, discharged her self defense firearm, striking the bottle-throwing driver. Shooter fled the scene, called her criminal defense attorney father, who called 911 as he joined his returning daughter back at the scene.

    Other driver is hospitalized and the shooter was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

    • This is the sort of situation where a missed shot under stress (AKA a warning shot) may be justified. Just be sure your “missed shot” hits one of the other car’s tires. (YMMV)

  11. The insinuation that Hummer drivers are all over-testosteroned madmen waiting to explode is just as specious as the meme that all gun owners have tiny dicks. Besides everyone knows that most H2 pilots are soccer moms anyway.

  12. Only shooting the wife in the leg could bolster his self defense case, as it shows restraint and appropriation of force, he shot the big threat to death, and if the wife remained a hostile threat, he shot her in the leg. I haven’t read the details of what happened, so just guessing in the wind, but that’s how I’d look at it unless other things popped up.

  13. As reported by The Times-Picayune newspaper on nola.com: “Smith was slumped over the steering wheel of a silver vehicle.” So…it appears Will Smith never got out of his vehicle. He may have used some harsh words, but he was not physically threatening the other guy, so no “self-defense” justification of shooting.

  14. Back in the mid-70s, when Las Vegas, Nevada was a much nicer place, a woman with her child in the car got stuck in traffic on Fremont Street, near downtown. Some kid, hopped up on something, jumped on the hood of her car and tried to break the windshield to get into the car. The woman reached into her glove box, got her equalizer, and put one shot through the windshield. One dead nutjob. She was protecting herself and her kid. The kid’s parents tried to raise a big stink, but both the police and the Las Vegas Herald-Tribune both said the same thing, “Hey, the kid was doing something he shouldn’t oughta been doing.”

  15. “…Meanwhile, Smith’s killer was arrested, his gun recovered and charges filed.”

    Is there going to be any effort at trying to find who sold the killer the gun?

    You know, because something something gun control.

  16. I feel sorry for him choosing a G63 instead of a G65.

    Or else he wouldnt be dead, with that V12 malfunctioning he wouldnt have pulled out of the garage

  17. Ban personal use of vehicles. Vehicles kill more people then guns and if you run over a dog and dont eat it, the Fish and Game should arrest you for wanton waste. Stereo types?, like Sony, RCA, Marantz, Samsung, Zenith

  18. So a guy who plays kids games for a living bites off more than he can chew. Would we have this post if it was a blue collar driving a Chevy geo that got hit by a ford 150!?!

  19. As a New Orleans metro resident this is just another thug and another day in the city. Unfortunately, we are living and defined by the storm, and killed by the politics that have been business as usual for the last 200 years. Our leaders are too consumed with removal of statues instead of crime, finding ways to improve the economy. If it doesn’t make them headlines and put some cash into their pockets they could care less. Gun control doesn’t work. Federal mandates don’t work. Defend New Orleans, save our lake and our gulf, and vote the bastards out.

  20. “Note: it is possible the HUMMER driver shot Smith in self-defense.”

    While I would agree with you if only Will Smith had been shoot.
    But since his wife was also shot?
    No.
    This was deliberate murder and attempted murder (or manslaughter).
    But hey, the Hummer driver may have been drunk too.

    Another example why I am very cautious and courteous while I drive on the public roads but I am also armed to the teeth and ready for bear when I drive.

    Road Ragers do not think like Reasonable Human beings.
    The act like primitive wild, rabid animals and have to be treated as such unless they
    show some restraint.

  21. It is said that New Orleans is at the mouth of the Mississippi river. If a watershed were an alimentary tract then it’s actually at the other end.

    Charlie

  22. Let me repeat – if the shooter was 6’3″ 300 lbs, it most likely wasn’t self defense, and ditto if the decedent was still in his car. Probably not even close. And extra points for being the one rear ending. And, even if he wasn’t so big, and Smith was out of his car, Smith’s wife is another charge – somewhere between aggravated assault and attempted murder, since he would not have been privileged to shoot the wife, regardless of what Smith had done.

    Keep that last in mind – while the police can shoot bystanders, you really cannot, even if you are shooting in self-defense. The self-defense defense to a shooting only goes as far as someone reasonably threatening you of imminent death or great bodily injury. Not their wife who is sitting next to them. Not the kid down the street. Etc.

    • “Smith’s wife is another charge – somewhere between aggravated assault and attempted murder, since he would not have been privileged to shoot the wife, regardless of what Smith had done. “

      Without further info than is provided in the above article, it sure seems like an awful lot of ‘White Knighting’ going on here in the comment section in regard to the wife.

      Yes, it is very likely she was shot unintentionally. Or, it’s possible the shooter was a d-bag and shot her on purpose illegally and immorally.

      But, there ALSO remains the possibility that she was part of the altercation(*) and “disparity of force” is back in play even in though the shooter was also a big man. Two against one is long odds.

      I’m not siding with the shooter. I am, however, saying, let’s lay down with the speculations about how this went down and who was doing what, when and where at the time of the shooting.

      (*) Women are often not “innocent bystanders” in scenes like this, and often are the aggressors. It just makes no sense to speculate that she was JUST a bystander unless and until some evidence comes to light showing such.

  23. “that goes double if the driver’s piloting a HUMMER or enormous pickup or anything in the tire-wearing testosterone projection department.”

    Why does every object someone owns have to be a projection or compensation for something else? This nonsense is ridiculously juvenile. How about, if you’re carrying and there’s a possibility of pointless altercation, be the beta and gtfo of the situation before you or someone else loses their life over ego?

  24. Wow, The hypocrisy in here is equal to the huffington post. A bunch of grown men crying about being labeled due to personal choices, but all jump on vehicle owners and apply derogatory opinions.

    You are no different than the hoplos today. I’m ashamed

  25. The run down. A runaway gator crosses the road. Smith slams on breaks. Hummer slams into Smith. Driver is mad because beloved hummer that he thought would get him hummers, only gets him 8 gallons to the mile, correct? Thought so, good.

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