Smith charged in murder

NICOLE NORRIS/THE GREENVILLE STANDARD

According to the Greenville Police Department shortly after 2pm on Sunday, officers received a call of a shooting in progress on Whittaker Street.  Once on scene officers found one gunshot victim laying in the front yard of a residence.  Paramedics arrived shortly after the officers and attempted to treat the victim.  The victim was pronounced dead at the scene due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators immediately began working the scene and developed a suspect according to witness statements and evidence collected at the scene.  Within the hour officers were able to locate the suspect.

Jermario Smith, a 28 year-old male from Greenville, was found and taken into custody. Smith was then transported to the police department for questioning.

According to Captain Justin Lovvorn, investigators confronted Smith with the evidence collected from the scene and Smith confessed to shooting the victim.  According to Smith, he and the victim were involved in a disagreement just prior to the shooting.   The argument got out of hand and escalated into a shooting.  Currently there is no evidence to insinuate that the victim of the shooting had a weapon of any type.

Another location was processed after receiving information on the location of the weapon used by the suspect.  Investigators were able to recover multiple weapons from this location, including the weapon possibly used in the shooting.  Additional tests will be conducted at the Department of Forensics to verify if it was the weapon used in the shooting.

Smith was arrested for murder and transported to the county jail where he is being held without bond at this time. The victim was a 58 year-old black male.  His name is being withheld at this time until proper notification of his next of kin is made.

Captain Lovvorn said “I would like to commend the tireless efforts of both patrol and investigations in this case.  They worked diligently to help ensure the safety of the citizens of Greenville by quickly developing and locating the suspect in this case.”