FUNERAL FOR FORMER NFL PLAYER WILL SMITH SHOT ON NEW ORLEANS STREET
Full story at directorsinsightmag.com
Wife of Saints player Will Smith views his casket in a wheelchair
At the Saints’ training center on Friday, April 16, 2016 hundreds of people wearing the team colors of black and gold turned out to pay
homage to the former defensive end who was born in New York, but became a hometown legend.
Sitting in a wheelchair and shielded by dark glasses, Racquel Smith, the wife of slain New Orleans Saints player Will Smith, has been seen
in public for the first time since the shooting that left her husband dead.
Racquel, who was shot in both legs during the vicious late night attack in central New Orleans on Saturday, April 9, 2016, leaving her with a
shattered femur, was attending a casket viewing for her deceased husband alongside fellow Saints player, Pierre Thomas.
Behind the casket were three large photos of Smith playing football. On either side, large video screens showed video snippets and photos
of Smith on and off the field. “Several mourners lingered in front of the casket, while others kneeled down in prayer or bowed their heads in
respect for a few minutes of silence.”
‘It broke my heart,’ said Khantrell Wagner, who lives in the same New Orleans Lower Garden District neighborhood where Smith died. ‘It just
saddens me that this could have been avoided.’
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