Exactly how a simple fender bender escalated into a shooting that left former New Orleans Saints player Will Smith dead and his wife injured remains one of the unanswered questions from Saturday night's incident.
Authorities have a suspect in custody (28-year-old Cardell Hayes) and released the cause of the death (gunshot wounds to the side and back of Smith’s torso) in the shooting that also left Smith’s wife, Racquel Smith, with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to her leg.
Here’s what else we know about the incident as of Tuesday morning:
Surveillance video shows possible hit-and-run before shooting
New Orleans police said Sunday that the shooting arose after Hayes’ Hummer rear-ended Smith’s Mercedes SUV at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.
But surveillance video appears to show what transpired moments before the shooting, something Hayes' attorney John Fuller previously alluded to.
In the video, a Hummer that matches the description of the one driven that night by Hayes stops abruptly and is bumped from behind by a Mercedes SUV. The Hummer pulls off to the right after the collision, but the Mercedes SUV speeds off.
The Hummer then begins to follow the Mercedes toward Sophie Wright Place and Felicity Street, the scene of the shooting that is less than two blocks away from where the collision footage was captured.
“My client was not the aggressor in terms of the behavior that happened after the accident,” Fuller told reporters on Sunday.
Fuller told reporters after Hayes’ brief court appearance on Sunday that his client had a different version of events and Hayes was involved in a hit-and-run crash minutes earlier. Fuller added that Hayes “attempted to pursue the vehicle in an effort to get the license plate number and report the accident."
A second man was in Hayes’ vehicle, but was released after he was interviewed by police.
Video mentions a second gun
A video posted on nola.com brings up the possibility of a second gun being present at the scene of the crime.
And while New Orleans police say only one gun has been confiscated - the one used to kill Smith -- the attorney for Hayes made it a point to mention the possibility of a second gun at the scene.
"To say that only one gun was confiscated is a little bit different than saying that only one gun was present," said Fuller. "The uncovering or unearthing of a second gun will lend itself to the defense of Mr. Hayes. Everybody out there felt threatened, by someone other than Mr. Hayes."
Fuller did file a motion asking to have the New Orleans police preserve any ballistics evidence, according to nola.com
"When we do the ballistics testing, we're going to know if another weapon was fired," Fuller said.
A witness told NOLA.com she heard six to eight gunshots.
Hayes faces second-degree murder charge, bond set at $1 million
Hayes was booked on a second-degree murder charge. Magistrate commissioner Brigid Collins set his bond at $1 million on on Sunday.
Hayes will likely be back in court Monday for a hearing to determine a new lawyer. Fuller is slated to serve a six-month pro tem judge term starting in May that will preclude him from defending clients in criminal cases.
This isn't the first time Hayes' has faced criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to possessing an illegal weapon and possessing drug paraphernalia in 2014, according to online court records.
Lawyer: Hayes, Smith didn’t know each other
There doesn’t appear to be any meaningful interaction between Hayes and Smith before Saturday night’s tragic events, Fuller said.
"Obviously being here in New Orleans we are aware of Will Smith and every other Saints football player but were they friends and did they hang out in the same circles? The answer is no," Fuller said.
There was a connection between another person who dined with Smith and his wife at a sushi restaurant minutes before the incident: retired New Orleans police Lt. Billy Ceravolo. Ceravolo was named in a lawsuit filed by Hayes against the city of New Orleans after the death of his father.
Ceravolo said he didn’t know he had been named in the lawsuit, which was settled out of court, and was not at the scene of the incident.
“I think this is just the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ceravolo told WWL-TV. “I mean, no way you could explain what happened.”
