Cardell Hayes’ Passenger Believes the Alleged Killer Saved His Life During Will Smith Shooting

There's a whole judicial system to get to the bottom of stuff like this.

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More details continue to trickle out about the shooting incident that left former NFLer Will Smith dead and his wife wounded. The latest development concerns a passenger in the car of Smith's accused killer, Cardell Hayes, who claims that he thinks Hayes "saved his life" by shooting the ex-Saints defender in the back. 

The lawyer for that passenger, whose name is Kevin Oneale, released a statement yesterday:

"My client believes that Cardell saved his life. Smith had a gun and was going to shoot it, and Cardell may have saved both of their lives … in my mind this is justifiable homicide. Was Will Smith acting like a saint? This was a hit-and-run that ended up in a tragedy. You’ve got the aggression of two [former] football players, facing off with each other as if they are on the field, and you are going to get your point across by any means necessary.”

Footage that was released yesterday appeared to show Smith's Mercedes SUV bump into the back of Hayes's Hummer before driving off. The shooting, which isn't seen on the video, occurred mere minutes afterward.

Additionally a witness claims to have watched an argument between Smith and Hayes, and is recorded on a video recalling his/her version of the events in which both talked about their guns, saying the argument turned deadly when Smith said:

“‘Get out of here or I have a gun.’ And he goes, ‘Fuck y’all, I got one too.’ And he grabs the gun and then he shoots him in the back. He’s dead.”

This (at least partially) backs up a statement released by the police last night that reveals they found a loaded (but not fired) gun in Smith's vehicle. 

Anyway it's still unclear at the moment what exactly happened. Which--I guess--is why you have trials and stuff like that.

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[via NOLA.com, WDSU]

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