The WakeMed Campus Police Department officer fatally shot in an incident with a patient last month had been fired from his previous job at the Knightdale Police Department, The News & Observer has learned.
Officer Roger Smith, 59, died Nov. 8 in the emergency department of the WakeMed Garner Healthplex. He was fatally wounded during an alleged struggle with 29-year-old Benji Martin Jr., who had been brought to the emergency room after experiencing a mental health crisis.
No body camera or surveillance footage has been released, though Martin’s loved ones have called for such footage to be shared publicly. The Garner Police Department, which responded to the shooting, has offered little information beyond sharing WakeMed staff’s description of Smith as a “hero whose actions likely prevented further loss of life.”…