A former police chief who dined with New Orleans Saints star Will Smith just hours before his death was named in a lawsuit by the alleged shooter, it has emerged.
Smith, 34, was shot dead on Saturday night and his wife Racquel, also 34, was shot twice in the right leg in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District.
He was shot in the back and side after exchanging words with the driver of a Hummer H2 that rear-ended his Mercedes G63 SUV, causing him to strike another vehicle, police said.
Cardell ‘Bear’ Hayes – a 28-year-old former security guard for the Saints – has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Just one hour before his death, Smith was pictured with former New Orleans Police Department commander Billy Ceravolo and former New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas.
There is now speculation that the shooting was a revenge attack after it emerged that Ceravolo was named in Hayes’ lawsuit against the city for a police shooting that killed his father, Anthony Hayes, in 2005.
Anthony Hayes was shot dead just 500 yards away from where his son allegedly shot Smith 11 years later, with both shootings taking place on intersections of Felicity Street.
Hayes’ ex-attorney confirmed that the former police captain was one of the defendants in Hayes’ case against the city after his father was shot dead by police 11 years ago.
Ceravolo – a 25-year veteran of the force who retired in 2013 and was friends with Smith and Thomas – told WWLTV he was not at the scene of the shooting.
He added that he was not aware that Hayes had named him in his federal lawsuit.
Last night Hayes’ attorney John Fuller told NBC News that his client was ‘not the aggressor’ and ‘is not guilty’.
‘He is completely competent and completely aware of what he did,’ Mr Fuller said.
Smith, a defensive end who played for the Saints from 2004 to 2012 and helped the team win its only Super Bowl, was fatally shot in a road-rage incident. His car had initially made contact with Hayes’s vehicle, and Hayes returned the favor a few blocks later, then ended a confrontation by shooting Smith eight times, seven in the back.
Hayes and his attorneys had argued in the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court trial that he fired his gun in self-defense, claiming that Smith, 34, was reaching for a gun he kept in his car. Prosecutors said Smith went to his car to retrieve his weapon only after getting shot and died in his vehicle before he could get his hands on it.
Smith’s wife, Racquel, was also shot in the leg during the incident, and she said in a statement Friday (via nola.com) that she was “extremely disappointed with today’s sentencing and the leniency showed by Judge Buras.” She added, “While we know nothing will ever bring Will back, we were hopeful that Judge Buras would have issued a stronger sentence to more justly reflect both the nature of the crimes and the tremendous loss and pain that my family has suffered as a result of Mr. Hayes’ violent actions.”
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