Three days after a Clinton man was shot and killed, tips to police have led to a person of interest in the case.
Clinton Police Chief Adrian Mathews confirmed as much Tuesday morning, declining to provide any further details since it is an ongoing investigation.
The chief did say that a person of interest can be a potential suspect or just someone detectives believe could have additional information about the case.
He declined to name the person of interest, again pointing to the ongoing probe into the matter, but the police chief did note that the next step would be to locate the person of interest and bring them in for an interview.
That officers have gotten this far so quickly is, Mathews said, a testament to the hard work of his detectives and to the willingness of some people to provide needed information to piece together what transpired Saturday night into Sunday morning.
“I am pleased with the way the investigation is going so far,” Mathews said Tuesday, “but I should stress that we still need people to come forward with information.”
Mathews is seeking information that will lead to the suspect or suspects who shot and killed Tyree Joel Smith in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Smith, whose last known address was 204 W. Butler Ave., was found lying outside at 203 Shamrock Drive just after 12:30 a.m. Sunday, suffering from what police called “gunshot wounds.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Since that time, Clinton police detectives have been tracking leads, processing tips and scouring the Shamrock Drive area for clues to who killed the 38-year-old.
“We are still running down leads,” Mathews said Monday morning, noting that investigators were at the scene throughout the day Sunday.
For that reason, the police chief is urging anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Clinton Police Department at 910-592-3105 or provide anonymous information through the tip line by texting 847411, beginning the message with ‘tipcpd.’
“We have had some tips,” Mathews stressed, ‘but we are hoping for more.”
One of the reasons tips are so important in this case, the police chief pointed out, is because some 80 to 90 percent of the people gathered at the Shamrock Drive location Saturday night into Sunday morning for what some called a corn hole tournament had fled the scene after the shooting.
“There were probably 50 people there,” Mathews said, explaining that the shooting scene wasn’t a residence but more like an open area outdoors.
While witnesses noted that people had gathered to play cornhole, Mathews said he would describe it as more of a “large party.”
“This was on private property … not a normal neighborhood,” Mathews explained, adding that those gathered included family members, cousins and assorted other friends and acquaintances, similar to what one could expect for an outdoor party.
Police do not know who called in the shooting and observed, on arrival, that most of the people they were told were in the area at the time of the shooting had fled the scene.
“It makes it extremely hard to investigate a case like this when most of the witnesses left before we arrived,” Mathews said.
That’s another reason using the tip line is so important, he said. “We believe some people have information that can help us. We have some information, but we definitely need more,” the chief stressed.
Mathews reiterated that detectives have not yet determined a motive. “We are still investigating.”
The police chief offered his thanks to his officers, stressing how hard they had worked since the call came in. “I appreciate all their efforts every day,” Mathews stated.
He also emphasized that the Sunday morning shooting was an isolated incident and posed no threat to the community at large.