The 40-year-old plant manager, who arrived at work before dawn, had been a robbery victim one too many times. He started carrying a handgun six months ago.
Kevin L. Smith's 9-year-old brother Austin built this cross Tuesday night outside the Smith family hom
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The 19-year-old Lancaster man, who had been abandoned by his biological mother at birth, had a host of behavioral issues and numerous scrapes with the law that landed him in prison.
When their paths crossed during a botched armed robbery at Power Pro Battery Co. in Manheim early Tuesday, the consequences were disastrous.
The operations manager, who had a gun and a permit to carry it, shot and killed a troubled young man named Kevin Lee Smith, who was packing his own weapon, in what likely will be ruled self-defense later today.
A second suspect fled and remains at-large.
The owner of the 210 S. Penn St. firm, which recycles batteries, said his employee is somewhat shaken up and has taken the next week off.
"He's running on adrenaline right now," said John Roads. "He's also smart enough to know that this is what he trained for. The reason he armed himself in the first place was, when he was one of my drivers, someone tried to hold him up at the Hess station six months ago."
During that incident the manager, who had been filling up his truck at the Manheim gas station, fled from the robbers.
This time, Roads said that had his worker not been armed, he might be dead.
"There's no way the cops or anyone else could have saved him in a situation like this. These guys did try to pull the trigger," he said. 'The gun jammed."
A surveillance camera placed inside the front door of Power Pro Battery caught about 10 seconds of the robbery, authorities said this morning.
The color footage, turned over to police and the district attorney, shows the operations manager — whose name is being withheld by the New Era because the second robber has not been caught — walking in and being followed closely by the two men.
The manager arrived for work shortly after 5 a.m. and later told his boss that the two robbers made a noise under the steps, dropping a cell phone and a backpack that alerted him to their presence.
As the manager put the key in the front door, the two men, wearing black clothing, baseball caps and bandannas over their faces, walked up the stairs and followed him into the business, pointing a gun at his back.
Neither the police nor the district attorney would release the surveillance footage. But they did describe it to the New Era this morning.
It shows Smith pointing a TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun — a weapon popular among street criminals — at the manager's back as they walk in the door, said Manheim police Chief Barry Weidman. The two suspects were wearing baseball caps and bandanas to conceal their faces.
The footage shows the two robbers leading the manager into a second room about five feet inside the front door, a room that was not under surveillance. At that point, the suspects frisked the manager and took his wallet — which held his driver's license — and a cell phone, owner Roads said.
The robbers did not, however, find the small-caliber semiautomatic pistol the manager carried for protection. It was in another pocket, and as the robbers told him to open the business safe, he pulled the gun from his pocket as the two robbers took their eyes off him.
The surveillance video shows that, about 3 seconds after forcing the manager into the room, the bandits fled — a split-second after the manager fired two shots, according to police.
"They come running out and go right out the door," said Weidman. "The manager, a couple seconds later, peeks out the door to see if they left and he comes back into the office area."
The two rounds struck Smith, one in the chest and the other in his wrist. He collapsed about 400 yards from the business as the other man ran from the scene.
One of the men dropped the gun near a telephone pole. Police said a preliminary examination of the TEC-9 showed the weapon was jammed, indicating that the trigger was pulled at some point.
Smith died at Lancaster General Hospital later in the morning.
An autopsy done Tuesday concluded that Smith died of a gunshot wound to the chest, said county Coroner Dr. Stephen G. Diamantoni.
Jack and Jacqueline Smith, Kevin's adoptive parents, said in an interview at their Reinholds home today that they know their son was wrong, and that he had a history of behavioral issues. But they described their son as a follower, someone who could easily be coerced into doing wrong.
"He was wrong for doing it," said Jacqueline Smith. "But he would do anything that he thought would allow him to make a friend."
Kevin's father said he is angry at the robber who escaped for not helping his son after he was shot. "If he calls Kevin a friend, I will punch him square in the face," Jack Smith said. "A friend wouldn't leave him there to die."
The Smiths said Kevin's biological mother, whom they described as a crack addict and prostitute at the time she gave birth, and the adoption system failed their son.
They said doctors told them Kevin was born high on crack, and he bounced from foster home to foster home — at least 10 in all — before he was adopted by their family at age 3.
They said their son had been diagnosed with numerous behavioral problems, from personality disorder to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.
Court records show Smith had a couple of scrapes with the law and served time in Lancaster County Prison in the years since he moved out of his parents' home.
"He was a man with a lot of issues," said Weidman.
Police listed Smith's address as 520 S. Shippen St. in Lancaster City, but newspaper records indicate that he had occasionally stayed at the Water Street Rescue Mission.
A shelter official said Smith walked into the mission one day in March after being released from prison. He stayed four nights and had not returned since. "He just came into the emergency shelter and left," the official said.
In September, he told police he was staying at the shelter after they had picked him up in the first block of Hazel Street on charges of possession of a small amount of marijuana.
They also cited him with disorderly conduct because, while Smith was being questioned about a bike theft incident, he refused to obey a police command to show his hands, according to a newspaper account.
Instead, he reached into his pocket and threw a razor blade onto the ground, police said. Police said they then found about 23 grams of marijuana in Smith's pants pocket.
Smith pleaded guilty to both the drug and disorderly conduct charges.
Earlier in 2007, in March, Smith pleaded guilty to third-degree felony charges of theft and criminal conspiracy, as well as a summary offense of causing damage to an unattended vehicle, according to court records.
He served time in Lancaster County Prison, although exactly how much time is unclear. Court records indicate he was picked up on several parole violations as recently as this spring.
Police continued to search for the second suspect today. He is described as 5-foot-8, with a dark complexion and a medium build. He was wearing black clothing and a black baseball hat. Manheim Borough police ask anyone with information to call them at 665-2481 or 664-1180.
Staff writer Tom Murse can be reached at tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021.
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