Security guard fighting for life after being shot outside Fayetteville hotel
A man guarding an empty hotel in Fayetteville was shot in the head and robbed over the weekend, police said.
Jerry Smothers, 63, remains in critical condition, and family and friends have come together to support him.
"There's no way nobody could have done this to him if you had known him," his sister, Mary Jo Hinton, said Tuesday.
Smothers was working at the Clarion Hotel, at 1944 Cedar Creek Road, when he was shot Saturday night, 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.
The hotel has been closed since a major fire in February, and Smothers was there to provide security to the building and the construction equipment there.
"He talked with my mother, and he talked with his wife on the phone around maybe 9 o'clock [Saturday]," Hinton said. "I don't know if anybody really knows what time [the shooting] happened."
Another security guard found Smothers shortly before 11 p.m. and called police and paramedics.
Co-workers said Smothers was a good man who would give the shirt off his back to a stranger. They say he had a routine for pulling security at the hotel.
"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. "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."
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Detective M. Waters of the Fayetteville Police Department at 910-635-4978 or Crime Stoppers at 910-483-TIPS.
