Smith was gunned down on Thursday as he was exercising in the
Libyan city of Benghazi where he worked as a chemistry teacher
for the last year and a half, security sources and school
officials said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible
for the attack.
"He was just always so helpful and caring. He was just all
around perfect," Abubaker Tahar, 16, one of Smith's students at
the International School Benghazi, told Reuters via Twitter. He
was one of a number of students who took to social media to
share their grief for a teacher they described as trying to push
them to make Libya a better place.
Smith attended Woods-Tower High School in Warren, Michigan, and
earned a master's degree in chemistry from the University of
Texas in 2006. He was a devout Christian who was a member of the
Austin Stone Community Church, which aims to have its followers
do good works in the places where they live.
"It was not always sunshine and lollipops, but God's hand was
always leading me and He brought me to where I am today," he had
written on his page at the church's website.
One of his friends, Logan Gentry, told the Los Angeles Times in
an email interview that Smith was aware of the heightened
violence in Libya but he was not afraid.
"Part of me wonders, 'Why were you out running in that
environment?' But he would probably say, 'Why not?' He enjoyed
life and feared very little. It is what made him so great," he
told the paper.
Smith had been planning to return to Texas for the Christmas
holiday and was in Benghazi preparing his students for their
midterm exams. His wife and child were in the United States at
the time of the attack.
Libya's government is struggling to contain former fighters and
militants who, two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, are
challenging a fragile state that is still building a national
army with Western aid.
"It makes me feel so sad that he came to help Libyans and ended
up murdered by them," Bushra Gleasa, 18 and a student at the
school, told Reuters by Twitter. "He was not a foreigner to us.
He was one of us," she said.
(Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Benghazi, Feras
Bosalum in Tripoli, Karen Brooks in Austin and David Bailey in
Chicago; writing by Jon Herskovitz in Austin and Curtis Skinner
in New York; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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