RICHMOND, Va. — Denise Smith is known as someone who is always stepping in to help.
The former social worker and Virginia Commonwealth University graduate's passion for people led her to join VCU's first class of "Safety Ambassadors," an unarmed task force within its police department that has received special mental health training.
"Our biggest focus is mental health, but we also do other things, like jumpstarts and working overtime assignments in parking decks, just trying to alleviate some of the calls from police," Smith said. "We are unarmed; we have our words. We do not carry any kind of weapon — no mace, no Taser. That's the biggest thing, so I feel like we're a little more approachable."
Smith knew she would be on the ground helping people, particularly those who may be suffering from a mental health crisis.
"We are out on the streets, and you never know what you might run into," she said.
She never knew she'd run into this on the job: the aftermath of a mass shooting right in the heart of VCU's campus.
On June 6, 2023, Smith was working at a parking deck across from the Altria Theater, where Huguenot High School was holding its graduation ceremony.
Smith was on traffic control duty at the time.
"I was literally standing right outside the parking deck, and we just heard shots going off. In the city, it's a little different hearing gunfire because it echoes off the buildings, so you don't know where it's coming from," Smith said. "Then I saw all these people rushing through — people had no shoes on, there were things just kind of flying everywhere. The biggest thing was just helping people into the deck; it was kind of an automatic response. I didn't even think about it."
Smith could tell people were running in her direction, away from the scene that had just unfolded closer to Monroe Park.
One person coming toward her seemed to be in need of help.
"Honestly, I thought he was just an average citizen running through the parking deck, trying to get into the parking deck safely. He was very flustered, scared, so I just walked up to him, and the biggest thing he asked me was, he was worried his grandma was going to get shot," Smith said. "So I was like, 'We'll get connected to your family but first we need to make sure you're safe."
As Smith continued to reassure this man she said seemed to be running for his life, something happened.
"That's when the gun fell out on to the floor," she said.
Body camera footage shows Smith talking with then 19-year-old Amari Pollard, urging him to step away from the gun.
Pollard followed commands to drop the weapon and eventually hid behind a car as Smith waited for backup.
"I thought they were going to kill me," Pollard said in the video. "I thought they were going to kill me."
Smith said she tried to remain calm throughout the interaction.
"I didn't even think anything of it then," Smith said. "It was one of those things, I was like, I just gotta make sure he's safe, he doesn't hurt himself and I gotta get him to put it back down again."
At one point, Pollard picked up the gun and pointed it at himself and pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked.
She said one thing made the difference in getting Pollard to still comply in such a tense moment.
"I think it's because I'm unarmed, and the empathy really played a big role in it because when he walked up to me, I didn't care who he was, it was just, I was worried about getting him safe, making sure he got connected back to his family," Smith said.
She said she never feared for her life during the interaction.
"I did not. And I still to this day that I was even in that position at the same time. Because it was so natural to me," Smith said.
Once police took Pollard in for questioning, continuing their investigation into who may have been behind the shooting, Smith realized something.
"I stood there working the crime scene, just making sure no one went through it, and that's the time I was by myself, you know, didn't have anyone around to talk to, and I think that's when I realized, that was the shooter," Smith said.
Smith's body camera footage would later be at the center of one of Richmond's most watched trials this year, and Pollard would later be found guilty in the shooting death of Shawn Jackson that day.
His stepfather, Renzo Smith, was also shot and killed, and multiple people were injured.
Smith kept showing up to work.
“I just did was I had to do and went on, I mean even that day I went and finished unloading the parking deck, I took my son to a baseball game, next day I worked another graduation," she said.
Her dedication to service when the stakes were high earned her a Valor Award Tuesday morning, a tribute to her bravery, now eternally engraved in glass.
“It was pretty amazing, and honestly, I would do it all over again," Smith said.
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