James Hale Smith

How they died

Deadly force

Dillard's worker Danielle Primavera, 57, volunteered to be taken hostage by the gunman, identified by police as James Hale Smith, 31, of Tucson. She volunteered to take the place of a younger woman Smith was holding at gunpoint. Smith, police said, had fled a botched robbery at a restaurant minutes earlier and headed west to the mall, with police behind him. Sgt. Paul Hawks, who killed the man, thought he was putting himself in mortal danger, up against a cornered man with a firearm, as Hawks repeatedly told Smith to drop his weapon. The firearm was an air pistol, police said, but Hawks had no way to know that. Hawks held his fire, even while the gunman repeatedly pointed the pistol at him from 10 to 15 feet away. He did not fire until the woman struggled with the gunman, giving the sergeant one clear shot.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that James Hale Smith, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources