news-record.com

CHAPEL HILL (AP) — The mother of a UNC-Chapel Hill student who was shot and killed by police says her son was in good spirits just hours before police said he called 911 and said he was suicidal.

"His best friend was with him at 2 a.m. and said he was fine," Susan Smith, the slain man's mother, told told The News & Observer of Raleigh.

Courtland Smith, a 21-year-old junior and fraternity president from Houston, was shot just before 5 a.m. Sunday after Archdale police officers pulled his car over on Interstate 85.

Archdale is in Randolph County, just over the Guilford County line. A police report said Smith first telephoned police and "indicated that he was suicidal."

Smith's 911 call went to a dispatcher in Guilford County, and that alert reached the Archdale police.

"Once the vehicle came to a stop, a confrontation ensued," a police statement said.

The exact details of that confrontation aren't known. The chief assistant district attorney in Randolph County said he got a court order Monday to seal the 911 tape.

"There is a valid reason related to the investigation for not releasing it," Andrew Gregson said.

Archdale Police Chief Darrell Gibbs says the officer who shot Smith, Jeremy Paul Flinchum, 29, has been placed on administrative leave with pay. Flinchum was hired by Archdale in April 2008 after spending about six years with the Randolph County Sheriff's Office.

The State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the shooting, which is standard procedure.

Susan Smith said the family wants to know what was said on the 911 call.

"We're all asking what happened," she said. "This is just not what my child would have done."

Both she and Courtland Smith's father, Pharr Smith of Houston, described Smith as happy and upbeat.

"He was a good student; he was smart; he was handsome; he was the perfect child, and he was just the love of my life," Susan Smith said.

Pharr Smith said he didn't know where his son was headed early Sunday.

Smith graduated in 2007 from Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston, where he was a wrestler.

He also was a whitewater kayaker who had worked for the past two years as a counselor at a boys' camp called Mondamin, near Hendersonville. He had been a camper there in the past, said Frank Bell, the camp director.

"He was an extremely good kid -- just top notch and one of the best young men we have ever had here," Bell said.

Smith was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, whose national executive director, David Easlick Jr., said he talked with some of Smith's fraternity brothers Sunday. They said he displayed no signs of depression, Eastlick said.

"It's such a shame to have such a young life cut off," Easlick said.