

that's just nasty Rae, did it remind you of Mai's birdie? EWWW! LOL, I probably would have used a slingshot

I have to reread that one so it makes some sense to me and look for clues.
Discuss
I would be, as you say, pretty sure about such things.
1) In case they waste another hit on a doctor save.
2) Because AFAIK you probably wouldn't get an ID if you got mafia hit the same day, so knowing in advance who the sheriff was IDing basically makes them relatively safe unless they're gonna ID a mafia. In which case you'd whack them and keep their identity safe.
3) So that later in the game they can point that out to try and get the rest of the town to lynch him as some devious mafia.
4) If the Sheriff has no guilty IDs, then they are little more than a standard townie, and so they may end up voting for townies in the lynch by mistake... the Sheriff (or someone who is confirmed to know him)'s word carries weight, so they could have feasibly helped lynch a couple of townies since Four Winds by mistake. That works in Mafia's favour.
5) They don't believe I am the sheriff, and are donating their time to tracking down the real sheriff.
a) The fake sheriff who convinced the doc to save him on day 2 gets someone lynched day 3, then waits 4 days before getting someone lynched on day 7?