The man suspected of fatally shooting an off-duty security guard at the UPS facility on Whites Creek Pike Tuesday night is in custody.
TITANS (The Investigative Team Addressing Neighborhood Shootings) detectives Friday night apprehended Robert Darden, 19, shortly after he arrived at an apartment complex at 270 Tampa Drive in South Nashville. Darden ran as detectives approached and tossed a nine-millimeter pistol. He was apprehended after a brief foot chase. The gun was recovered.
Investigation by Homicide Unit Detective Adam Reese led to the identification of Darden as the suspect in the fatal shooting of De’Terrius Smith, 21, inside Smith’s car. Smith got off work and left the UPS facility just after 3 p.m. Tuesday before returning at 4:21 p.m. A black Nissan Sentra driven by a woman with Darden as her passenger pulled up next to Smith’s car. Darden got into Smith’s vehicle. Smith was shot, got out and collapsed nearby. Darden got back into the Sentra and was driven away. The nature of the meeting between the two remains under investigation.
The investigation shows that Darden paid the woman, an acquaintance, to give him a ride to the UPS facility to meet someone. After the shooting, the woman said Darden, at gunpoint, ordered her to drive away and to not say anything about what occurred or he would kill her. He got out of her car on the side of a street a short time later and walked away.
Darden is jailed without bond on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated kidnapping (for pulling the gun on the woman and ordering her to drive away), and evading arrest for running from TITANS detectives.
At the time of the murder, Darden was free on a $15,000 bond relating to a felony aggravated assault charge for pulling a gun on his mother in March 2021.
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Robert Darden, 19
Recovered gun