On a cold March evening in Buffalo, New York, the life of 22-year-old Michael Smith, a Black male, was tragically cut short. On March 8, 2013, Smith was driving his Dodge Durango in the Bailey-East Delavan neighborhood when the sound of a gunshot pierced the night. He had been struck by a single bullet.
Despite his severe injury, Smith managed to drive for a couple of blocks, his vehicle finally coming to a stop after crashing into another car at the intersection of Newburgh and East Delavan avenues. When help arrived, he was bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to his thigh.
He was rushed to Erie County Medical Center, but the injury proved to be fatal, and he succumbed to his wound later that night.
The shooting was one of three violent incidents that occurred within a 10-block radius in the same neighborhood that Friday, a night that saw a total of four people shot. The circumstances surrounding the shooting of Michael Smith remained part of an ongoing police investigation. Information regarding any potential suspects or arrests in connection with his death has not been made publicly available in the years that followed.
