Following the death of former Saints player Will Smith in the Lower Garden District, Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans is saying that the famous murder is not indicative of the city’s crime problem.

In a brief statement to WDSU today, Landrieu tried to paint Smith’s death as an isolated incident in the city, and not as one that happens every week.

“What’s beginning to come into clearer focus is you had two individuals, two grown men, both in really nice cars, that had collision, that reacted very badly, that ended in the death of one man and its threatening the life of another,” Landrieu told WDSU. “That’s a tragedy no matter how you cut it.”

However, Landrieu’s assertion that Smith’s death is not related to the city’s crime problem is questionable.

In an exclusive analysis by the Hayride last year, New Orleans’ crime problem has been ticking back up to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels ever since the natural disaster ruined the city. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was often referred to as the ‘Murder Capital of the South.’

In a Daily Mail analysis that local media outlets ignored, New Orleans was listed as one of the most violent cities in the world, and the fourth most violent American city, putting it ahead of cities in Mexico and Guatemala.

And in the most recent report from the US Justice Department, New Orleans was named the 12th most dangerous city in the country based off its violent crime statistics.

Already this year, there have been 32 murders across the city of New Orleans, as its murder rate last year ticked back up from previous numbers the year before.

Smith was killed after he and his wife were leaving a late night dinner at Sake Cafe on Magazine Street in the Uptown area when all of the sudden, gunfire broke out, following a fender bender.

Since the killing, social media has floated around conspiracies about the story behind the murder of Smith, citing relations between the alleged killer and people inside Smith’s inner circle.