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Fayetteville security guard dies after shot in head, robbed

A Fayetteville security guard who was on life support after being shot in the head and robbed on June 5 has died.

Posted Updated

By
Gilbert Baez
, WRAL Fayetteville reporter

A Fayetteville security guard, who was on life support after being shot in the head and robbed on June 5, has died.

63-year-old Jerry Smothers was taken off life support on Thursday, by his own request, his sister told the Fayetteville Observer.

The damage was too severe for him to fulfill his dying wish of donating his organs, she said.

"He needs justice, he deserves justice, because this should not have happened to him or to anyone else," Mary Jo Hinton told the Fayetteville Observer.

Smothers was working at the Clarion Hotel, at 1944 Cedar Creek Road, when he was shot, police said. The shooter took Smothers' wallet and his GMC Sierra pickup truck, which was found Tuesday morning in a wooded area off Elk Road, behind South View High School.

Coworkers said he was a good man who would give the shirt off his back to a stranger.

Fayetteville security guard dies after on life support from shooting

"If somebody pulled in, he could stop and address the situation – what they wanted, what they needed or whatever the case may be," co-worker Greg Porter said.

Hinton and her husband drove from Mississippi to Fayetteville to be with Smothers. She said they wanted to be there for him as he had been for her so many times over the years.

"My first memory of him is holding my hand on the school bus. He's been the best brother ever," she said last week. "He's always been helpful to everybody. The only memory I have of him is giving. He's always been giving – maybe too giving – and that may have gotten him in trouble."

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