According to NBC News, later on September 4, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report he'd been shot on the side of the road while changing a flat tire. He later admitted he hired Curtis Smith to shoot and kill him so his only surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect on a roughly $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh's lawyers said he was depressed over the recent deaths of Maggie and Paul and experiencing drug withdrawal. Smith was arrested, but he denied pulling the trigger. In October that year, Smith told TODAY, "I didn't shoot him. I'm innocent. If I'd have shot him, he'd be dead. He's alive."
According to Smith, on September 4, he unequivocally told Alex Murdaugh he would not kill him. "Ain't happenin'. Not today, not tomorrow, it ain't happenin,'" Smith allegedly said. Seated in his car in front of a funeral home when the conversation took place, Murdaugh then allegedly threatened to do it himself and drove away. Concerned, Smith said he followed him and finally confronted Murdaugh on the roadside. Across various interviews, Smith said Murdaugh had a gun, and as Smith struggled to take the weapon, a shot went off (via The State). But in "Mudraugh Murders," Smith notably said he fired a warning shot. Regardless, Smith said Murdaugh fell and received minor injuries, but the bullet never hit him. "I knew I hadn't shot him. I knew there weren't no blood on him, there was no blood on me. So I went home," he said in the show.
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