Saints Head Coach Sean Payton Wants To Live In A Country Without Guns Following Will Smith's Death
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton wants to see more gun control following the death of former player Will Smith.
Payton told USA Today that if he had his say, everyone would live in the U.S. without guns.
"Two hundred years from now, they're going to look back and say, 'What was that madness about?'" Payton said. "The idea that we need to fend off intruders … people are more apt to draw them. That's some silly stuff we're hanging onto."
Smith, a former Saints captain, was gunned down in New Orleans Saturday night in what police are saying was a road rage incident.
"I hate guns. I've heard people argue that everybody needs a gun," Payton told USA Today. "That's madness. I know there are many kids who grow up in a hunting environment. I get that. But there are places, like England, where even the cops don't have guns."
Payton explained he researched the type of gun that was used to kill the former defensive end for the Saints.
"It was a large caliber gun. A .45," he told USA Today. "It was designed back during World War I. And this thing just stops people. It will kill someone within four or five seconds after they are struck. You bleed out. After the first shot, [Smith] took three more in his back."
Payton continued, "We could go online and get 10 of them, and have them shipped to our house tomorrow. I don't believe that was the intention when they allowed for the right for citizens to bear arms."
Payton also called the city of New Orleans "broken," comparing the violence to the "Wild, Wild West."
"It's like our big little secret," Payton told USA Today. "They don't want to kill tourism. But right now, it's like the Wild, Wild West here."
Police said Cardell Hayes, a former semi-pro football player, rear-ended Smith's Mercedes G63 with his Humvee H2, pushing it into a Chevrolet Impala carrying Smith's acquaintances, before Hayes opened fire.
A defense attorney for Hayes, John Fuller, says there's more to the story: He said Hayes himself had been rear-ended moments earlier by a hit-and-run driver, and called 911 to describe the car he was following before he ran into the back of Smith's Mercedes. It remains unclear whether the car he was pursuing was the Mercedes, the Impala or some other unrelated car.
The two men -- both big and imposing -- then angrily confronted each other on Felicity Street shortly before midnight. Moments later, witnesses heard gunfire. Smith was killed by bullets in his back and torso. His wife was wounded in the leg.
Police arrived soon thereafter, handcuffing Hayes. As paramedics wheeled Racquel Smith away on a stretcher, her husband's lifeless arm could be seen above his steering wheel, his body slumped partially outside his car.
Hayes, 28, was being held on $1 million bond after police arrested him on a charge of second-degree murder. He was in court again Monday as arrangements were made for a new lawyer to eventually replace Fuller, who will soon begin work as a temporary judge. Prosecutors now have 60 days to decide how to proceed.
Fuller insisted outside court Monday that Hayes will be vindicated once the full story emerges. Someone "besides my client" was behaving in a threatening manner, he said. "My client has been pilloried, convicted and tried," he added, complaining about media coverage.
Questions remain about what exactly transpired that night. Police haven't released the accounts of Racquel Smith, the passengers in the other cars, nor any other witnesses. A police spokesman, Tyler Gamble, said he had no immediate information about the 911 call.
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