Former NFL cornerback Alphonso Smith Jr. dead at 40 after alarming social media post

TMZ reports that Smith died by suicide at a housing community in Florida on Wednesday. Before his death, Smith posted a dismaying final message on his Facebook page.

“Do not cry for me!” Smith wrote on social media. “I tried everything in my power to fight the demons behind the ones that someone put into ME! I did not want to be that WAY! I know I have disappointed so many folks. This is a DEMON in me! But not only me! It’s EVERYONE! I have HURT so many! I needed help & did not get it! I am so sorry!”

Smith wrote that he was abused by an older woman as a boy and he later hurt others “[a]s a result.”

“I pray my soul rest in heaven for my heart is pure, but my BRAIN & experience is MESSED UP,” he wrote.