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ARCHDALE — An Archdale police officer shot and killed a suicidal motorist early Sunday on Interstate 85 after the man called authorities asking for assistance.

The victim has been tentatively identified as Courtland Smith, a 20-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill student from the Houston area.

A student at Smith’s fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, refused to comment. Alumni leaders of the fraternity said Smith, president of the house, had been killed.

University officials could shed little light on the incident.

“I can confirm that a student has died,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said Sunday night, “but I can’t confirm who it is.”

University police also declined to confirm Smith’s death.

Archdale police did not release the victim’s name pending notification of his family nor did they identify the officer involved.

The State Bureau of Investigation has been called in to handle the case. Efforts to reach an SBI spokesman Sunday were unsuccessful.

In a news release, Archdale police gave the following account:

Archdale officers conducted a traffic stop on the interstate about 4:54 a.m. Sunday after getting a call from a subject who told police he needed help and was suicidal.

The release did not say when the call came in or what kind of assistance the man wanted.

After police stopped the vehicle, a confrontation ensued and the officer shot the subject. Police did not say if the man was armed or if he threatened officers or other motorists in any way.

The victim was taken to High Point Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m. Police described him as a white male in his early 20s.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital could not immediately say how many times the victim had been shot.

The release did not say whether the officer had been suspended.

Local fire officials said the shooting took place in the southbound lane of the interstate, which runs just behind the Archdale police station but could not provide a specific location.

Archdale police patrol a section of the interstate stretching from N.C. 62 to Trinity Road, a distance of about five miles.

The department has about 30 members, according to an officer on duty Sunday afternoon, but he could not say how many had been working Sunday morning

Staff Writer Richard M. Barron contributed to this story.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com