TEXAS CITY - The last time Kathey Kelley saw her son, Carlton “Chimmy” Smith, he was surrounded by friends and family celebrating Christmas at her brother’s house in La Marque.
But a few hours later, her 20-year-old son, who friends and family described as a good boy who never got in trouble, was brandishing a gun when he was shot and killed by a police officer outside notorious nightclub H.T.’s Lounge, 6204 FM 1765.
“I’m upset because I don’t know anything,” Kelley said as she wiped tears from her face. “He was my baby.”
Kelley, who lives in Webster, on Friday was trying to piece together the tragic events leading to her son’s death. She raced to the scene of the shooting as soon as she got a call from her sister.
“My sister called me and told me what happened,” Kelley said. “I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t believe it.”
Kelley, who on Friday didn’t know any of the details of the shooting, also was upset that police wouldn’t let her see her son, she said.
“I didn’t even get to identify him,” Kelley said.
It wasn’t like Smith, who has a twin sister and 3-year-old son, to get involved in this kind of situation, she said.
“He was a good boy,” Kelley said. “He would help anyone with anything.”
Smith’s cousin, Daryl Block, said Carlton never got into any trouble.
“He only ever had a traffic ticket,” Block said.
A Daily News background check found Smith had no criminal record.
Smith had recently left a job as a manager at Advanced Auto Parts to work in a local plant to help provide more for his family, Block said.
“He was always there to take care of his friends and family,” Block said.
Charleston Harris, a friend of Smith’s, had been at the scene since the early morning hours. Harris said H.T.’s had been open for at least 20 years and always had huge crowds, sometimes of more than 200 people.
“People come from all over Dallas and Houston to come out here,” Harris said. “There’s fights, people carrying knives and guns all the time.”
Harris said some underage people even use fake IDs to get into the nightclub.
But Harris said Smith wasn’t one of those guys.
“He was a schoolboy,” Harris said. “Carlton never got in trouble.”
More than 100 people on Friday gathered in parking lots neighboring the nightclub. Some people were family members, but many were just friends of Smith and his family, his aunt Quintina Block said.
By the end of the day Friday, several friends and family members had already changed their Facebook profile pictures to images of Smith.
“See those people,” Quintina Block said, pointing to the rows of cars and people standing in parking lots. “Those are all people that knew and loved him.”
Some of Smith’s friends held a vigil near Smith’s house Friday night.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, December 27th 2014 at 3:34PM
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