MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Officer Verdell Smith’s life ended on the streets of Memphis, streets he was sworn to protect. Those who knew him say his reach was far and wide.
Smith’s friends are not surprised to hear he was trying to move people out of harm’s way Saturday night on Beale Street, when he was hit by a speeding car driven by a criminal suspect.
“He was such a good person,” said Rosalind Palmoore. She knew Officer Smith most of his life and even went to school with him. He was an uncle to her son.
“He was the baby of the family, but he was the big brother of the family,” she said.
She said he loved Memphis and especially did all he could help young people stay on the right track.
“He loved our city. He would do whatever he could to try to better our city. He was that person. He is Memphis,” said Palmoore.
It even led him to form a program for juvenile offenders to deter young kids from crime.
“He had a really, really tender heart for people,” said Ladell Beamon, who heads up Heal the Hood Foundation. He said Smith even reached out to his organization to create a partnership to bring a theme-park-type attraction to the city to give kids something to do.
“He really wanted to do a lot of work with young people that go down to juvenile court, to keep them out of it and to keep them from returning back to the system,” Beamon said.
It’s ironic that keeping young people on the right path was Smith’s passion, and now a 21-year-old young person, Justin Welch, is charged with snuffing out what so many say was such a bright flame.
“This was a good one. This was a good one. Most are good, but this was a good guy,” said Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams.
Smith is survived by his father, a fiancee and two children.