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GREENSBORO — A UNC-Chapel Hill student told a 911 dispatcher he was suicidal, armed with a pistol and driving drunk at speeds up to 110 mph early Sunday before he was shot and killed by an Archdale police officer on Interstate 85.

But it remains unclear from a recording of the 911 call whether 21-year-old Courtland Smith displayed the weapon or threatened himself, police or passing motorists. The 15-minute recording was released by Guilford Metro 911 on Wednesday.

“I am driving drunk. I was wondering if anyone could drive or lift me,” Smith told a dispatcher just after 4:30 a.m.

The junior biology major said he was driving his 2004 Toyota 4Runner westbound on Interstate 40 in an attempt to get to Asheville and take Interstate 26 to an undisclosed location. He was actually on Interstate 85 in Guilford County.

He indicated he was near Exit 126 when the dispatcher took the call.

“I mean I am trying to kill myself on I-40 ... that’s all I need,” Smith said in a slurred voice, as the dispatcher tried to get his location and telephone number.

“I have a 9 mm pistol with me; it’s in my back pocket. ... Well, I am thinking about putting it in the passenger seat.”
The conversation continued for several minutes as Smith sped down the highway.

The dispatcher asked him repeatedly to stop or slow down to get a number from an exit sign so she would know where to send officers.

Smith refused, and at one point stopped talking and said he was going to finish his drink.

“Thank God, I am talking to you,” Smith told the dispatcher.

“But there is no one who can pull me over or anything?”

The call continued as Smith traveled into Randolph County and into the Archdale Police Department’s jurisdiction.
He refused to give his name to the dispatcher, but said he was from Houston.

At one point, he mentioned an e-mail sent to his family.

“Just everything everyone needs to know got e-mailed to my parents,” Smith said. “I e-mailed everything anyone needed to know to my parents, anything else anyone else had concerns about.”

When the dispatcher asked what direction he was traveling, Smith said, “I mean 110 miles an hour, that’s what I’m at towards, that’s what I’m headed towards.”

“Can you slow down a little bit ... ?” the dispatcher asked. “Just slow down since you’ve been drinking; it might not be safe to be going that fast.”

“No one is driving at 4:45,” Smith replied. “I know, I know what you are saying.”

When he arrived at Exit 108, the site of the shooting, Smith told the dispatcher there were two patrol cars behind him with flashing lights.

He pulled over, and there was some discussion in the distance between him and the officers.

“Stay in your car!” an officer yelled repeatedly.

“I gotta pull something out, I gotta pull something out ... I was talking to the dispatcher ...” Smith yelled.

The phrase “whoa” can be heard several times in the background and the call ended with someone saying, “Where the (expletive) are you all going?”

The tape ends before shots were fired by an officer.

Smith was taken to High Point Regional Medical Center after being shot by Officer Jeremy Flinchum, police said.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating, which is standard procedure in a shooting involving police.

Flinchum, 29, and another officer have been put on administrative leave, although Archdale police said only one officer fired shots.

Reached by telephone in Houston, Smith’s father, Pharr Smith, declined to comment on the 911 tape. He said he did not want a copy of it.

Smith was the president of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at UNC-Chapel Hill.

“After hearing the 911 tape, we were saddened and surprised at what we heard, given the last contact Courtland had at the fraternity,” said Chris Rice, a UNC alumni member of DKE.

“The last information we had on Courtland was that when he left a party at the fraternity at approximately 12:30 a.m. and went to his off-campus residence, he seemed to be fine.”

Rice said Smith talked to his roommates at 2 a.m. and he seemed normal.

Smith’s funeral will be Friday in Houston.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com
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