In the late afternoon of a Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, 21-year-old DeTerrius Smith, a male off-duty security guard, returned to his workplace, a UPS facility on Whites Creek Pike, shortly after his shift had ended on February 15, 2022. He had left the property around 3 p.m. but came back just over an hour later, parking his car in the lot. His return would tragically set the stage for a fatal encounter.
A short time after Smith arrived, a black Nissan Sentra, occupied by a female
driver and a male passenger, pulled up alongside his vehicle. The male passenger, later identified as 19-year-old Robert Darden, exited the Sentra and got into Smith's car. The purpose of their meeting remains a subject of investigation, but it concluded with Smith being shot. After the shot was fired, Smith managed to get out of his car before collapsing nearby. Darden then got back into the Nissan Sentra, and the female driver sped away from the scene. Co-workers of Smith rushed to his aid, and he was quickly transported by ambulance to Skyline Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The investigation into the homicide led detectives to identify Robert Darden as the primary suspect. A few days later, on a Friday night, detectives with Nashville's TITANS unit located and apprehended Darden at an apartment complex in South Nashville. As officers approached, Darden attempted to flee on foot and threw away a nine-millimeter pistol, but he was captured after a brief chase. The firearm was recovered by the police. The female driver of the Sentra told investigators that she was an acquaintance of Darden's who he had paid for a ride. She claimed that after the shooting, Darden forced her at gunpoint to drive away and threatened to kill her if she spoke about the incident.
Robert Darden was subsequently jailed without bond, facing a multitude of serious charges, including criminal homicide for the death of DeTerrius Smith. In addition to the homicide charge, he was charged with aggravated kidnapping for threatening the female driver and evading arrest. At the time of the fatal shooting, Darden was already out on a $15,000 bond for a prior felony aggravated assault charge from March 2021, in which he had allegedly pulled a gun on his mother.
