 (CNN) Will Smith and his wife, Racquel, were "having a blast" at a city festival mere hours before they were both shot, leaving the former New Orleans Saints defensive end dead and his wife hospitalized. New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said during a Sunday afternoon news conference that police are still investigating whether Hayes and Smith knew each other. As the vehicles approached a five-point intersection in the city's Lower Garden District neighborhood, Hayes was driving behind them in an orange Hummer H2, police said. Police said Smith, 34, and his wife, Racquel, were traveling eastbound on Sophie Wright Place when their Mercedes Benz SUV was rear-ended by a Hummer H2. Police said the 30-year-old driver of the Hummer is in custody and being interviewed by investigators. Smith and the driver of the Hummer "exchanged words, at which time the driver of the Hummer produced a handgun and shot the male victim (Smith) multiple times and his 34-year-old wife twice in the right leg," said NOPD spokesman Juan Barnes. Police said Smith's wife was wounded and was taken to a hospital. A witness at the scene, Janis Baehr, a tourist in town for the French Quarter Festival, said she was walking near the intersection and heard the crash and then six to eight gunshots. A woman, who lived near the scene, but declined to give her name, said she heard noises outside and saw a woman arguing with a man, but when she heard gunshots, she ran back inside of her house. "I kept her company until the paramedics came because she was screaming," Baehr said. They prayed together, she said, before paramedics rushed Racquel Smith to the hospital with gunshot wounds in her leg. The shooter is being questioned, police said. Investigators recovered the weapon they believe he used, and it had no record, Harrison said.
– Former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, who played on the 2010 team that brought home the Super Bowl title, was "having a blast" Saturday night in NOLA's Garden district, per his own Instagram photo. Then abruptly, he was dead, reports the Times Picayune, the victim of an apparent road-rage incident that also sent the 34-year-old's wife to the hospital with gunshot wounds. The Smiths were apparently returning from a French Quarter party when their SUV was rear-ended by a Hummer. Smith exited the vehicle, and "exchanged words" with the driver, "at which time the driver of the Hummer produced a handgun and shot the male victim (Smith) multiple times and his 34-year-old wife twice in the right leg," per an NOPD rep. Cardell Hayes, 28, has been charged with second-degree murder, adds the Times-Picayune. "A senseless and tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with Will Smith—his wife Racquel—his children William, Wynter and Lisa," said a Saints rep in a statement, via CNN.