On Wednesday, the Antioch Unified School District recognized Antioch Police Sergeant Rick Smith for his actions in early September where a firearm was located on the campus of a middle school after a crime was committed.
Superintendent Stephanie Anello highlighted how the incident occurred over a weekend but carried over into September 2.
The incident resulted in police detaining two 14-year-old and one 15-year-old male juvenile after a carjacking. Witnesses to the crash collision identified all three subjects as being in the vehicle, and further investigation lead to one of the males being identified as being involved in Sunday nights carjacking incident.
“From speaking to Sgt. Smith, there were three juveniles who fled the scene of an accident and later detained and arrested at Dallas Ranch Middle School. While a comprehensive search was performed by Antioch Police, no weapons were found at that time,” stated Anello. “Prior to the start of the school day on Sept. 3, staff informed me that there were multiple Antioch Police units and personnel at Dallas Ranch Middle School. I contacted Antioch Police to ascertain the extent of the activity to ensure any response in part by the Antioch Unified School District did not compromise the activities of the department. At that time I was referred to Sgt. Rick Smith as he was the active duty supervisor familiar with the unfolding of events at the school.”
Anello explained that when she was talking with Sgt. Smith, she learned that he “just couldn’t sleep” and he had a feeling that he had to go back with his team and search for a weapon.
“Thankfully, due to his efforts, they did find a weapon on campus,” said Anello. “Because of his intuition and great work, he was able to stop what could have potentially been a very dangerous situation for students and staff at that campus. We can’t thank you enough.”
Sgt. Smith explained that if something doesn’t feel right, you have to go back and fix it.
“My wife was going crazy, I was tossing and turning all night, up and down, up and down, woke the baby,” explained Smith. “I told her what was wrong, she says go fix it. I want to go go in and call my team that night, but I think the chief would have been upset with all the overtime. So we went that morning.”
He explained they cut their briefing short that day so they could go search for the weapon.
“I wanted to rest assure knowing there was no gun on that campus,” said Smith. “I’ve been through juveniles shooting juveniles in my 27-year career. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen the repercussions. Antioch is my family. I love this city.”
He closed by saying he was accepting the recognition on behalf of his crew because they also get the recognition.
In early Sept. at the time of the incident, Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks explained this incident was a carry over from the carjacking over the weekend where police arrested the three teens. He added that although police looked for the firearm, they were unable to locate it after chasing the teens onto the campus after the vehicle crash.
Brooks said the fact that the firearm could still be on a school campus, did not sit well with Sgt. Rick Smith who led a team to the campus Tuesday to conduct a search. They were able to locate it prior to students arriving on campus.
6 comments
Awesome!! Good job Sgt.!!!
USA back to school kit in 2025:
-Backpack
-Pencil box
-Coloring supplies
-AR15
-Running shoes
-Bullet proof vest
-Ear plugs
Nice job Sgt Smith!
Good job Sergeant Smith.
Just want to point out that I see articles like this all the time where something happened at the school location, but not necessarily with students from that school, or vice versa.
This article mentions 14 year olds and a 15 year old (not middle school age). The carjacking (and discarded weapon) happened at/near the campus, but that doesn’t mean it had anything to do with middle school kids. Not that high schoolers doing stuff like this is much better, but I just wanted to point this out, especially knowing how ECT readers jump to conclusions, lack the ability to discern or even think critically, and love to make a racist rant about crime and suggest their oversimplified “solution” to the problem.
ECT – you guys could make a point to try and not mislead people just the same. Putting in bold font the name of the middle school while not pointing out that it was just the location? This isn’t the worst example, but just the latest. Seems like it’s done pretty routinely, and again, riles up the readers a lot of the time.
I appreciate a lot of ECT – just trying to point out something that could probably use improving.
Thank you for the feedback, but that is why the second paragraph was what it was saying it occurred over the weekend (obviously no school) and a link to the original incident.
Great work SGT. Smith! You have always had great instincts and have been an exemplary officer for APD.
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