Just three days after former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot and killed by Cardell Hayes following a car accident, police have revealed that they recovered a fully loaded 9 mm handgun inside of Smith’s Mercedes SUV. The revelation adds credence to Hayes’ attorney John Fuller’s claims that there was another weapon present at the time of the incident.
Though police have not said that the gun was fired, or if it belonged to Smith or someone who was in his vehicle, they did share that there was fully loaded revolver in Hayes’ Hummer H2. This obscures the issue considering that the shell casings on the scene were from a .45-caliber handgun. The discovery of the additional weapons comes after police were granted a warrant to execute a search on the vehicles involved in the incident.
Furthermore, police have yet to search a third vehicle, which is a Chevrolet Impala that had two of Smith’s friends inside. As for the gun inside of Smith’s SUV, authorities have not identified with whether it belonged to the victim, his wife Racquel Smith, who was also struck in the leg, or the two other people in the car, one of whom might of have been former Saints running back Pierre Thomas.
A witness on the scene told police that they overheard a shouting match moments before the shooting. According to NOLA.com, the unnamed witness says someone shouted “Get out of here or I have a gun.” To which another replied, “F*** y’all, I got one too.” It is not clear who was speaking at the time, whether it was Smith, Hayes or anyone else who might have been in the cars, but the details gives more backstory to the very tragic sequence of events.
