Jerry Smothers, a 63-year-old white male, was shot on June 5, 2021 while working as a security guard at the Clarion Hotel on Cedar Creek Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A coworker found him just before 11 p.m.; he had been shot in the head, robbed of his wallet and his tan 2001 GMC Sierra, and died several days later after a period in critical condition.

Investigators recovered the stolen truck and identified a fingerprint inside it that led to the arrest of 22-year-old Dahsir Thomas Welch of Hope Mills. Court documents say surveillance footage from a Dollar General, sightings of someone wearing clothing matching the suspect description, and Welch’s own statements placing him at the hotel the night of the shooting were part of the case. Welch was already in the Cumberland County Jail on unrelated charges when he was charged with first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Family and friends described Smothers as kind and caring; his sister Mary Jo Hinton said the family would never get over his loss. Does anyone have information about Smothers’ last shift or the events outside the hotel that night?