By Oakley Police Chief Paul Beard

On August 15, 2023 at approximately 3:25PM the Oakley Police Department was dispatched to Delta Vista Middle School because of two guardians being in a very heated verbal exchange with one another. After de-escalating the dispute one of our officers remained in the area.

Approximately 15 minutes later our officer became aware of another altercation occurring at the school and he was quickly intervening in the situation. Our officer was met by the same people being involved in a heated verbal altercation, but this time other people were yelling somebody was armed with a knife. Our officer called for emergency assistance, which prompted a fairly large police presence at the school. Our officer witnessed an adult female (Yvette Carmilla Brice 61, Antioch), armed with a knife, yelling at other adults. The female who had the knife was clearly angry and she seemed like she was ready to use the knife against the other adults. A gathering of school kids were also present.

Our officers moved in to get everybody separated and ensure the safety of the kids. As our officers took this action Brice moved closer to the people she was angry with and she moved the knife into an even more threatening position. Fearing a deadly situation was about to take place one of our officers drew his handgun and prepared to use it to protect the kids who were nearby. Our officers then forcibly took Brice into custody with nobody being hurt. As our officers were taking Brice into custody several students broke out into mutual combat type fights with each other, even while school staff and our officers were actively trying to keep the peace.

Our officers detained two female juveniles during this incident. The juveniles are aged 13 years old and 15 years old. The juveniles were not armed and were only engaged in mutual combat. The two juveniles were released to a family member and any Delta Vista student will be managed by the school district.

Brice was arrested for bringing a weapon onto school grounds, assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats.   

What happened at Delta Vista Middle School is disheartening and unacceptable by all means. I am grateful nobody was hurt in this incident, and I am proud of our officer who had the presence of mind to make sure everything was going to be okay. This situation could have gone horribly wrong. I am thankful it did not turn out that way and I am grateful we had police officers and school staff members intervening and standing in the way of what could have happened. We urge the adults in our society to be good and positive role models. Today so many kids got to see positive role models at work and examples of what not to be.

Brice was booked into jail Tuesday night.

As of Wednesday morning, she had bonded out of custody.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

“We’re just not going to put up with it anymore,” Sean McCauley downtown Antioch business and property owner.

Barbanica requests process to hire private security guards begun last year to continue

By Allen D. Payton

During a meeting at Antioch City Hall, Tuesday, August 15, 2023, which included city staff, Rivertown business and property owners and District 3 Councilman Mike Barbanica, it was decided a solution to the problem of sideshows, cars doing donuts and gunfire in downtown, city-owned parking lots will be cameras and automated license plate readers.

In the meeting were Acting City Manager Kwame Reed, Police Lt. John Fortner, the owners of Monica’s Riverview and Smith’s Landing Seafood Grill, Sean McCauley, who owns several buildings in Rivertown, and Barbanica.

“It was a very productive meeting,” the District 3 councilman shared. “My position is still zero-tolerance and anyone participating in sideshows.”

“I made a request for license plates readers and cameras in the city-owned parking lots north of W. Second Street,” he stated. “I’m probably going to add the one next to the Senior Center, as well.”

“We’re just not going to put up with it anymore,” McCauley said. “We have meetings once a month. It’s a public private partnership.”

Barbanica said, “Sean has offered to pay for the equipment. But this is a city problem, and the city should pay for it.”

Asked if he’d requested it for next Tuesday’s council meeting agenda, Barbanica responded, “Requested it ASAP.”

Asked if it requires council action or if APD can pay for it from their budget, Fortner responded, “Both can technically happen. Historically, the PD has run with the city’s Community Camera Project, and we would budget for that. If a larger project cane up over $50K that has to go to council to be approved.”

Later, Barbanica spoke about the RFQ (Request for Quote) process for hiring private security guards approved by the city council last year.

As previously reported, during their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, the Antioch City Council voted to adopt a resolution to develop a comprehensive Downtown/Rivertown Public Parking Lots Security Plan and authorize the City Manager to issue a Request for Qualifications for a private patrol security service either on and/or near Downtown/Rivertown Area City-Owned public parking lots or other designated downtown areas. District 3 Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock included other city owned parking lots in “southeast” in her motion which passed on a 5-0 vote.

“Four proposals were received in February for patrolling the downtown parking lots,” Barbanica shared. “I asked Kwame to follow up on that and continue the process.”

Later, Lynn Tei, who with her husband, Randy, owns Smith’s Landing said, “Something has to be done even if this isn’t the best solution to stop the craziness. But at least it’s something. We’ve added security on the weekends since we are getting so many calls asking if it is safe to come to the restaurant. Plus, we are concerned for our employees’ safety.”

ANTIOCH – On Friday August 11, 2023 Governor Newsom appointed Richard Hobin of Antioch to the 23rd District Agricultural Association, Contra Costa County Fair Board of Directors.

Hobin has been the owner and an attorney at Hobin & Hobin LLP since 1977. He served at the rank of O-3 in the U.S. Navy in 1974. Hobin is a member of the Lone Tree Golf Course Board of Directors, the Contra Costa County Bar Association, the California State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and the Rotary Club of the Delta.

He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

Fair CEO Joe Brengle stated that he is excited to have Hobin as a Board Member.

The next Contra Costa County Fair Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for September 13, 2023. For noard meeting agendas visit the Fair’s website at www.contracostafair.com.

Mark your calendars for the 2024 Contra Costa County Fair May 16 – 19, with the theme “To FAIR and Beyond”.

Former business owner, long-time Rotarian, co-founder of Antioch Sports Legends and the Leo Fontana Lifetime Achievement Foundation

By Allen D. Payton

It was announced by several Antioch organizations on Monday, August 14, 2023, that long-time resident, two-time Citizen of the Year and former Councilman Leo Fontana passed away on Sunday. He turned 100 years old earlier this year.

The Antioch Rotary Club of which he was a long-time member posted a message on their Facebook page which reads, “It’s with great sadness to let you know that long time Antioch Rotarian Leo Fontana has passed away. Our condolences to Leo’s family. He will be greatly missed.” They also shared several photos of members with Fontana and mentioned his Leo Fontana Lifetime Achievement Foundation benefiting youth in Antioch. An annual trivia night fundraiser is held and the winning team is awarded The Leo Trophy.

A brief message posted on the Facebook page for the Antioch Historical Museum, where the Antioch Sports Legends wing is located, reads simply, “We grieve the passing of Leo Fontana” and later “A legend in so many ways.”

On the Facebook page of the Antioch Sports Legends, which Fontana co-founded, the following was posted about him:

“It is with a heavy heart that the Antioch Sports Legends Program, shares the passing of Antioch Sports Legends Hall of Fame Community Sports Leader inductee and Co-Founder Leo Fontana.

Our condolences go out to his daughter Andrea, Family and Friends.

Leo Fontana’s bio from his 2008 Antioch Sports Legends Hall of Fame induction.

If it existed, Leo could easily claim the title of ‘Father of Modern Antioch.’ His behind-the-scenes involvement goes back six decades. He had a hand in bringing County East Mall, East County Bank, Delta Memorial Hospital and the Antioch Senior Citizens Center into existence. He’s served on the boards of several local charities and organizations. Antioch’s voters elected him to the Antioch City Council, on which he served from 1982-1986. He was also an Antioch Planning Commissioner, Parks and Recreation Commissioner and Charter President of the Antioch Merchants Association. The Chamber of Commerce honored him twice as Antioch Citizen of the Year. Leo might easily be called the ‘Cal Ripken, Jr.’ of service club members. He has a perfect attendance record of 29 years with the Lions Club and since 1978 with the Rotary Club of Antioch. Sports and recreation programs in the city all seem to trace their origins back to Leo. He participated in the creation of the Antioch Hornets football team, Lob Ball League, Antioch Softball League and Antioch Babe Ruth Baseball, for which he served as its first president. An athlete himself, Leo played catcher for the Antioch Merchants team and left halfback for the Antioch Alumni Football team in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was chairman of a committee that created a new corporation to run the Antioch Municipal Golf Course, and helped found the Antioch Bocce Ball League. His love of sports and his community led to his involvement in assisting in the creation of the Antioch Sports Legends Program and display in 2007, for which he was honored, with the other four founders, as Antioch Citizens of the Year.

Leo was 100 years old.

Funeral services for Leo to be announced!”

Fontana was also honored with a Key to the City by the Antioch City Council, during Mayor Wade Harper’s term. The Leo Fontana Fountain at City Hall was first dedicated in 1987, then redesigned, rebuilt and rededicated last year.

Publisher’s Note: Leo was my sponsor when I first joined the Antioch Rotary Club in 1994 and was a mentor and advisor to me while I served on the city council. Leo was my long-time friend, and we had the chance to meet one final time, last year as I brought him copies of the latest issues of the paper. We spoke about what was happening in, and he shared his concerns about, the city for which he cared, so much. Leo left an indelible mark on Antioch. He truly lived the Rotary International official mottoes of Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best. Leo will be missed.

He was also a parolee-at-large

By Brentwood Police Department

Early Wednesday morning, August 9, 2023, Brentwood officers were called to a business located at the 2400 block of Empire Avenue, for an alarm call. Shortly after, our Dispatch received a call from a remote video surveillance monitoring company, who advised they were watching a male attempting to break into the business.

The company provided a description of the suspect and saw that he got into a red SUV, which was being driven by someone else.

The on-duty Sergeant, who was close by, arrived to the area and immediately saw a red SUV driving into the Slatten Ranch parking lot. As soon as he attempted to do a car stop, the male attempted to flee on foot.

Our Sergeant was able to safely take him into custody, and 37-year-old Antione Jovan Rice of Antioch was placed under arrest for attempted burglary. Rice, who is on parole for burglary, was also a parolee-at-large.

The driver of the SUV, identified as 33-year-old Christina Marie Rivera, Jr. of Pittsburg, was located in a nearby Starbuck’s drive through. She was placed under arrest for assisting in the attempted burglary and she had a warrant for fraud.

Both Rice and Rivera were transported to the Martinez Detention Facility for booking.

According to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department, both Rice and Rivera are still in custody and she is being held on $30,000 bail. No information was provided on Rice’s bail amount.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

Suffering life-threatening injuries; suspect unknown, police investigating

Started as altercation at Antioch Marina where shots were fired

By Lt. Rick Martin, Antioch Police Investigations Bureau

On August 12, 2023, at approximately 2:58 AM, Antioch Police Dispatch center began receiving calls of shots fired in the 1000 block of W. 6th Street. At the same time, Contra Costa Sheriff’s dispatch advised they had located a victim of a shooting in Century Plaza in the City of Pittsburg who had been shot in Antioch.

During the initial investigation, it was learned an altercation had occurred between a group of subjects at the Antioch Marina where shots were fired. As the groups left the marina in their vehicles, the altercation continued to the 1000 block of W. 6th Street where more shots were fired. A 14-year-old female victim was driven to Century Plaza and a call to 9-1-1 was made. The juvenile victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.

APD Detectives are actively working this investigation. Anyone with information related to this incident are encouraged to contact our non-emergency at 925-778-2441 or Detective Allen at 925-779-6923.

Bullet hole in at least one building; police dealing with homicide unable to respond; Councilman wants zero-tolerance details to supplement patrol

By Allen D. Payton

Two residents complained about more cars at the Antioch Marina parking lots and dozens of gunshots Thursday night, August 10, 2023, once again disturbing downtown area residents. At least one building that houses a non-profit organization across the street from the police station ended up with a bullet hole in the outside wall.

Rivertown resident Joy Motts shared with the Herald on Friday, “Last night over 40 cars were at Antioch Marina parking lot. At 11:08pm, at least 40 shots were fired from automatic weapons. We heard it at our house. All of downtown heard it. At least 30 cars were counted speeding away.”

“I have videos of what it was like for the residents at 2nd and L Street and of all the vehicles speeding away.  But the resident does not want them on social media or news for fear of retaliation,” she continued. “(District 3 Councilman) Mike Barbanica is trying, but this has become an emergency situation in downtown.”

“What is also concerning is there is no reporting after the fact. A bullet hole was found in the building at the corner of W. 2nd and L Streets. Police did show up after the fact,” Motts wrote. “Why was there no police reporting? Innocent people are going to die, it is only a matter of time. We are at our wits end. It is chaos in downtown. All of us know that live here.”

“They need private armed security in the Antioch Marina at night,” she shared. “And APD needs to put those drones to use that Lamar (Mayor Thorpe) says are solving crimes. We are desperate.”

“It’s every night, now. Sideshows, donuts and gunshots,” Motts added later.

On a downtown resident’s Facebook page on Friday, he confirmed hearing the multiple gunshots.

“So last night we are sitting at home and around 11pm we hear 50-60 gunshots (yes really, probably more) and if you live in Antioch you kind of get numb to these things, but this time it was different because we could hear the whizzing noise of the bullets going through the air. Sounded like it originated from the Marina. I look out the window and see multiple cars speeding off, followed by sirens shortly after. What gets me is if you listen to most of our elected officials namely the Mayor or Tamisha (Mayor Pro Tem Torres-Walker), you would think the biggest problem in Antioch is hordes of white supremacists (and the patriarchy) terrorizing the public. The Mayor even claimed that crime and sideshows are down (probably because no one reports it anymore) They offer nothing but deflection. I’m not going to act like they are responsible for all this towns [sic] problems, but they are part of it for sure. Its [sic] downright embarrassing listening to these people talk. The sad part is, Antioch at least on paper has everything to be a very nice city. Miles of waterfront, Black Diamond Mines, Contra Loma, etc, but with years and years of mismanagement its [sic] becoming a dump, literally.”

Their information was shared with Antioch Police media relations officers and the new acting chief asking for confirmation and what if anything the police did in response..

“Yes. We heard about the gunshots and cars at the marina,” APD Public Information Liaison Sgt. Price Kendall shared. “We had four officers working the homicide (from earlier that night) leaving us two officers to deal with 40 cars.”

The department is currently short-staffed with at least 35 sworn officers on paid leave during the two investigations and 16 vacancies from the 115 positions approved in the budget.

When reached for comment Barbanica said, “I had a meeting with the city manager on it, yesterday and I made it very clear that the only way the city is going to get this resolved is with a zero-tolerance, hard-line stance. We cannot continue to have lawlessness. I told him we need to be doing is running special, overtime details in the evenings and bring in surrounding agencies, if need be. If someone is coming into our community to commit crime, it’s going to make it very uncomfortable.”

“I fear this not slowing down until we take a pro-active approach, and it must be a zero-tolerance stance for any crime whatsoever,” he reiterated. “This needs to be outside the standard patrol of the officers who are out there enforcing the law.”

“I ran zero-tolerance details in the City of Pittsburg for six years and the team was credited with lowering the crime rate by 23 percent,” Barbanica shared.

“We need to make sure city leaders and community leaders are on board because there will be people complaining. But we cannot continue on this path,” he added.

By Antioch Police Department

After 30 years of service, Sergeant Steve Aiello has retired. Sergeant Aiello began his career in June of 1992 serving the citizens of Antioch as a Reserve Police Officer. In June of 1999, Steve Aiello graduated the police academy and was promoted to the rank of police officer where he proudly served for the next 24 years.

During his career, Sergeant Aiello worked as a member of the Special Response Unit, Auto Theft Investigator, Narcotics/Vice Detective, Gang Unit, Community Engagement Team and a member of the Rifle team. As a detective, he was awarded the Medal of Valor in 2012 for his participation of a robbery/homicide investigation.

In 2017, he was promoted to the Rank of Corporal where he supervised numerous patrol teams, the Crisis Negotiations Team and helped purchase and design the department’s first Mobile Command Vehicle.

Sergeant Aiello served 17 years as part of the Antioch Police Officer’s Association (APOA) holding every position to include POA President for the last 4 of those years. His biggest accomplishment while serving the POA was the purchase, design and overseeing the yearlong construction of our new POA building for current and future members to enjoy.

In 2022, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant where he has served proudly and honorably until retiring.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Sergeant Aiello. Thank you for your service and you will be missed.